Two 85-pound dogs, 16 feet of space and a love of music is Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler's whole life.
The Americana-folk duo, known as The Rough & Tumble, left their day jobs, sold all of their belongings and moved into a camper to live life permanently on the road, playing at venues across the U.S.
The pair stopped in Auburn on Friday to perform at the historic Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship as part of the Sundilla Concert Series. The show started at 7:30 p.m., and tickets were $15 at the door.
Attendees were welcomed to bring their own drink and food as they enjoyed the show while the AUUF also provided free coffee, tea, water and food.
Chris and Laura Sanders came out to enjoy the music for a date night.
"We've been to a lot of these concerts before [Sundilla Concert Series]," Laura said. "It's nice to come out and enjoy some new music."
Lit up with a backdrop of colorful Christmas lights, the duo began to play from their 2013 Holiday Awareness Campaign album that celebrated unconventional holidays like Meteor Day and Boxing Day.
National Be Late Day had the audience laughing and nodding their head to the beat as the band sang.
"We began the Holiday Awareness Campaign as sort of a writing exercise as a way to explore our ups and downs throughout the year," Scott said. "With every holiday there is this kind of realization that this is a happy moment, but there is also this sadness that comes with that, and you realize the absence of the people you're not celebrating with or the Christmas blues."
Between songs, Tyler and Graham told the audience about having the "quintessential Auburn Day."
"We rode around town and even picked up a harmonica from Spicer's," Tyler said. "We already feel at home."
Graham and Tyler started singing together about six years ago.
"Mallory and I had both known each other and played together in some different groups, but this started off as a writing project where we both practiced some unfinished song together," Tyler said. "I was kind of doing my singer-songwriter solo thing, and Mallory was in a rock n' roll band at the time, but the two of us together became more enjoyable than anything else."
The pair said it felt totally normal and natural that they would sell everything and perform full-time.
"Before we started doing this full time, we would get so sad coming home from tours and going back to our very stationary lives," Graham said. "Even when we get a break now we get a little itchy to be back on the road."
Despite hesitations from family and friends, the duo decided to go for it and have been able to travel nationwide for booked shows.
"This is absolutely a full-time job, there is is no way we could do this and have any other job," Graham said. "We wake up on Monday morning after a show, and we go into wherever there is internet and sit down and do our 9-5 booking."
Next up on their tour is Michigan, and they'll be in California by the end of the year they said.
"It is just so fun to be in these places and celebrate what these regions celebrate," Graham said.
"We should also just say Alabama isn't so bad either," Scott laughed. "We actually got one of our dogs from Alabama, so we have a nice place in our hearts there."
During the concert, the band sold their albums and T-shirts that had their dogs, Butter and Pud's face printed on them.
Proceeds from the T-shirts go to a rescue shelter in northern Alabama where they found their second dog.
Their upcoming album, "We Made Ourselves a Home Here" will come out in January 2018.
"That album is pretty much a direct result of our life being on the road," Graham said.
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