The Civil Wars

All Music Guide:

A folk-pop duo made up of guitarist John Paul White and vocalist Joy Williams, the Civil Wars made a quick name for themselves with the release of a digital album, Live at Eddie's Attic, in 2009. The Poison & Wine EP followed later that year, and the duo partnered with producer Charlie Peacock to begin recording a full-length album in 2010. The result, Barton Hollow, was released in February 2011, topping the iTunes charts and cracking Billboard's Top 20 during its first week. Live at Amoeba appeared in the spring of 2012, and although rumors of a split for the duo circulated, two projects appeared in 2013, the soundtrack to the movie A Place at the Table, which saw the duo working with producer T-Bone Burnett, and a new full-length studio album, the self-titled The Civil Wars, which was released at the end of the summer.

Wikipedia:

The Civil Wars is an American musical duo composed of singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White. After releasing a live-performance album and a four-song EP, their full-length album Barton Hollow was released in 2011. The band won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album in 2012.

Contents

History[edit]

Beginnings[edit]

Williams and White met in 2008, during a song-writing session or "writing camp" at a music studio in Nashville, Tennessee. According to Williams the idea for the band's name came as she "was driving around town looking at all the Civil War monuments." Their first recording was of a 2009 performance at Eddie's Attic in Georgia which they released as a free Internet download called Live at Eddie's Attic. Later that year, they released a digital extended-play album, called Poison & Wine, produced by Charlie Peacock, and the title song appeared on the TV show Grey's Anatomy.

2011[edit]

In 2011, The Civil Wars released the album, Barton Hollow which reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 chart, No. 54 on the UK Albums Chart and received Grammy nominations in the Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance categories. The album was included on several critics' Best Albums of 2011 lists, including NPR Music, Paste, Time, Associated Press, AllMusic.com The Wall Street Journal Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today. They released the singles "Tracks in the Snow" and "Safe & Sound".

The duo appeared twice on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, on A Prairie Home Companion at the Sundance Film Festival, NPR's All Things Considered, the UK television show Later... with Jools Holland, the Late Show with David Letterman, and at the Grand Ole Opry. In the summer, the duo opened several shows for Emmylou Harris, and performed at Rhode Island's Newport Folk Festival. before joining Adele for her UK tour.

That year they were nominated for a Country Music Association Award in the Vocal Duo of the Year category, for the Americana Music Awards in the Duo/Group of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year categories and received the Vanguard Award at the 49th Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards. In September, The Civil Wars were nominated for two Country Music Association Awards, including Vocal Duo of the Year and Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration with Taylor Swift on the song "Safe & Sound." They won the award for Duo/Group of the Year at the 2012 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony, and their album Barton Hollow received RIAA Gold certification for 500,000 copies sold.

2012[edit]

In 2012 the duo received a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album Their album, Barton Hollow, was nominated for Album of the Year at the A2IM Libera Awards and received widespread praise from music critics.

That year the group appeared on TV shows, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Austin City Limits,, VH1 Unplugged Good Morning America and BBC Breakfast. The duo performed at the Ryman Auditorium, the Ford's Theatre Annual Gala the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Beale Street Music festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival, the Bonnaroo Music Festival and sang the National Anthem at the Atlanta Braves' opening day ceremonies.

Their songs were featured on The Vampire Diaries, Nashville and on the The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond movie soundtrack In 2012, The Civil Wars partnered with T-Bone Burnett on the film score for the documentary A Place At The Table (previously known as Finding North). and collaborated on the song "Lily Love" with The Chieftains. They released a 7" vinyl album with cover versions of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Portishead's "Sour Times" in April. The duo was featured in American Way magazine, USA Today, on the cover of Billboard, and released a photo book called To Whom It May Concern.

In November 2012, the duo went on hiatus, citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition."

2013[edit]

In June 2013, they released the single "The One That Got Away" from their album The Civil Wars and in October a music video called "Dust to Dust".Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).