Matrimony, the Charlotte folk-pop band centered around married couple Jimmy Brown and Ashlee Hardee Brown, has signed to Columbia Records.
The band announced its record deal at a Dec. 29 concert at Charlotte’s Visulite Theatre, and the signing was reported by Creative Loafing’s Vibes blog and confirmed by Charlotte Observer critic Courtney Devores’ Sound Bites blog.

This news follows the warm reception of Matrimony’s 2010 EP, The Storm & The Eye, a promising debut of smooth folk-pop buoyed by Americana twang and a lilt from the native folk of Brown’s native Ireland.

Like big-time bands The Avett Brothers, The Swell Season and Mumford & Sons, Matrimony uses the string-band folk rollick only as a propellant for panoramic pop-songs. That they’d find their way into the Avetts’ company (the Avetts’ label, American Records, is a subsidiary of Columbia) isn’t altogether surprising.

Matrimony released its latest, the digital single “Obey Your Guns,” in June, 2011. The band’s Columbia debut is expected to arrive sometime this summer. —Bryan Reed

UPDATE: It looks like news of Matrimony’s major-label signing first broke on the local Charlotte Events Calendar e-mail newsletter, which was published Dec. 28.