Artist: The Civil Wars
Album: Barton Hollow
Bitrate: 228kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Sensibility Records
Genre: Folk/Rock
Size: 68.81 megs
PlayTime: 0h 40min 01sec total
Rip Date: 2011-06-04
Store Date: 2011-02-15
Track List:
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01. 20 Years 3:01
02. I've Got This Friend 3:23
03. C'est La Mort 2:29
04. To Whom It May Concern 3:31
05. Poison & Wine 3:39
06. My Father's Father 3:20
07. Barton Hollow 3:25
08. The Violet Hour 3:25
09. Girl With The Red Balloon 3:49
10. Falling 3:58
11. Forget Me Not 2:56
12. Birds Of A Feather 3:05
Release Notes:
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In some ways, music doesnÆt get much more modest or minimalist than it is in the
hands of The Civil Wars, a duo comprised of California-to-Nashville transplant
Joy Williams and her Alabaman partner, John Paul White. They travel without a
backup band, and on their first full-length album, Barton Hollow, the bare-bones
live arrangements that fans hear on the road are fleshed out with just the
barest of acoustic accoutrements. Each song is an intimate conversation, and no
third wheels or dinner-party chatter are going to interrupt that gorgeous,
haunting hush.
On the other hand, thereÆs been something distinctly loud about the duoÆs
introduction to the world, even prior to the albumÆs release. Their signature
song ôPoison & Wineö was heard on GreyÆs Anatomyùin the foreground, in its
entirety, over a key climactic montage, prompting hundreds of thousands of
viewers to Google the mystery music. And they got a wholly unsolicited
endorsement when AmericaÆs biggest pop star gave The Civil Wars a seal of
approval. After first tweeting her love for the duo, fellow Nashvillian Taylor
Swift included ôPoison & Wineö as a selection in her official iTunes playlist,
saying, ôI think this is my favorite duet. ItÆs exquisite.ö
Swift took the words right out of the folk-country-Americana worldÆs mouth. If
it looks like The Civil WarsÆ appeal might cast a net that extends well beyond
the typical audience for acoustically based music, that may be due to the
inherent sensibilities Williams and White bring to their collaboration, which
are quite disparate, if not necessarily warring. Both were gigging and recording
on their own prior to teaming up a year and a half ago, neither solo career
quite suggesting what their conjoined sound would turn out to be. ôI do
naturally bend pop,ö says Williams, who adds that she ôgrew up on Billie
Holliday and The Beach Boys.ö White, meanwhile, was raised on Kristofferson,
Cash, and Townes Van Zandt by his retro-country-favoring dad. ôSomehow weÆre
pulling from each other what we crave and what our strengths are,ö he says.
If the music ultimately leans more toward WhiteÆs native South than WilliamsÆ
northern Cali roots, he says, ôI think JoyÆs got some hillbillies in her
ancestry or something like that. ThereÆs a song on our record called æMy
FatherÆs FatherÆ that we wrote on the day of the inauguration down in Muscle
Shoals, not long after we got together. I started playing the guitar figure and
she starting singing this amazing Appalachian kind of melody, and IÆm like,
æDonÆt even pretend that youÆre the pop girl and you come out with shit like
that!Æ I donÆt know where this stuff is coming from, but sheÆs drawing it from
somewhere, and itÆs amazing.ö
ôPoison & Wineö isnÆt just The Civil WarsÆ breakout song. ItÆs also a thematic
declaration of intent for this utterly complementary odd couple, encapsulating
everything suggested in the duoÆs name when it comes to exploring the conflicts
that arise as part of couplehood. Speaking of which: They arenÆt, thatùa couple,
that is. But theyÆre far from insulted if you mistake them for An Item in the
storied tradition of the Swell Season, Richard and Linda Thompson, or other
famous duos whose on-again, off-again relationships offstage complicated their
stage relations.
ôA lot of people think that weÆre married, and I think thatÆs actually quite
flattering, to be honest,ö says White. ôBecause we donÆt want people to think
that weÆre up here acting and feigning the emotions that we write and sing about
and show on stage. But one of the things that really make this special in our
eyes is that if she and I were in a relationship together, it'd be a totally
different act. We would write totally different songs. I donÆt think we would be
able to go on stage every night and sing æI donÆt love you.Æ I donÆt think a
healthy relationship could withstand that every single night. ThereÆs areas we
can delve into that wouldnÆt make sense for somebody thatÆs
till-death-do-us-part. I think thereÆs also a tension there that wouldnÆt be
there if it was something that was just rote, something that was an everyday
relationship. We try to use that to our advantage.ö
ôPoison & Wineö fits the paradigm of subject matter too true to be spoken, as
opposed to sung. ôThat song probably does sum us upùThe Civil Wars, the name of
the bandùas well as any song that weÆve written,ö White says. ItÆs the one song
on the album written with an outside collaborator, their friend Chris Lindsey.
ôWeÆre all married, and we were all talking about the good, the bad and the
ugly, and just felt like: What would you say to someone if you were actually
brutally honestùthe things that you could never say because it would turn them
away or let the cat out of the bag or reveal yourself to be weaker? What would
you actually say if you had this invisible curtain around you and could just
scream it in somebodyÆs face and theyÆd actually never hear it? We were all
being very painfully honest, because weÆre all very comfortable around each
other and know that things like that never leave the room, except in a song. IÆm
pretty proud of that song, to be honest.ö
When ôPoison & Wineö was heard in its entirety on GreyÆs Anatomyùversus in the
background, for a few seconds, as Williams and White had expectedùthey knew that
if the showÆs audience liked what they heard, it would put their search skills
to the test. The title only pops up in a verse, not the chorus, so it involved
some ingenuity or intuition to track the tune down. Fortunately, viewers proved
up to the test of finding, and choosing, their ôPoison.ö At last count, the
songÆs official YouTube video had been viewed 400,000 times.
White and Williams met in 2008 on what he describes as a ôblind date, getting
stuck in a room together, not knowing anything about each other.ö This was a
strictly professional blind date. As Williams recalls, ôI got a call for whatÆs
called a writing camp, where several writers were called together to work on
trying to write several radio singles for a particular country band. Though I
live in Nashville, I worked mostly in L.A. and came more out of the pop world,
so I was like, why did they call me? John Paul definitely wasnÆt bringing a
Music Row sensibility in when he was coming into the write, either, but neither
of us knew that about each other. In that room, it was almost 20 writers,
basically drawing straws and getting to know each other a little bit. And when
he started singing, I somehow knew where he was heading musically and could
follow him, without ever having met him before. And that had never happened to
me.ö
ôIÆve done lots of co-writes and collaborative situations, but IÆd never felt
that weird spark,ö agrees Whiteùôthat weird familiarity like weÆd been in a
family band or something most of our lives. The beautiful part of it was that
neither one of us would let on, so we both played it cool for a while, saying
æThat went well, we should write another,ö and so on. I worked up enough nerve
toùso to speakùask her out. But there was a lot of scuffing my heel on the floor
and æI donÆt know what youÆre doing for a while, but IÆve got this guitar, and
you sing pretty good, but you probably donÆt want to. YouÆre so much better than
I am. Never mind. IÆm just gonna go.Æ Luckily she felt the same way.ö
Months later, they did their first show as The Civil Wars at the French Quarter
CafΘ in Nashvilleùwhere their future producer, Charlie Peacock, was in
attendance and definitely taking notice. Their second show was at a club called
EddieÆs Attic in Decatur, Georgia, and it was attended by roughly 100,000 fans.
At least, thatÆs how many people have downloaded Live at EddieÆs Attic, a free
digital album, from their website.
The set included eight originals plus a cover of Leonard CohenÆs ôDance Me to
the End of Love.ö ôWe didnÆt even rehearse that much for that show, and we were
flying by the seat of our pants,ö recalls White. ôBut the sound guy at EddieÆs
is legendary for doing really great board takes, and we listened to the tape on
the way home and were pretty amazed at the quality of the recording. So we
thought, æWhat the hell, letÆs see what other people think about it.Æ The beauty
of putting that thing out as early as we did is, we could always fall back on:
æWell, it was our second showÆ,ö he laughs.
ôLooking back, John Paul and I canÆt believe we put out our second show ever,ö
Williams says. ôHopefully you can hear the growth from then to now. But IÆm
really glad that we did. To get emails now like æA buddy of mine in South Africa
just sent me Live at EddieÆs Attic,Æ or somebody coming up to us and saying
æYeah, my friend in New Zealand was the one that told me about you guysÆùin
Alabama, where we were doing a relatively local showùthat really took us by
surprise, the way it started a conversation nationally and internationally.ö
The Live at EddieÆs Attic release also had some other happy, unintended
consequences. Williams feels that the loose chatter between songs helped
establish that, as personalities, the two of them arenÆt always (or even
usually) as somber as their breakout song might suggest. More importantly, it
established them as a fully functional duo that might be harmed more than helped
by the addition of a slew of hired hands.
When it comes to keeping ôthe bandö to an un-band-like two people, ôthereÆs
probably 10 different reasons for that,ö explains White. ôSome of it is
logistics. ItÆs so much easier for two people to get into a car. But it just
felt like releasing that record with just the two of us also put that stripped
down, more organic, more raw kind of sound in peopleÆs minds. And we felt like
it was more emotional and told the story a lot better. ItÆs just she and I and a
guitar and piano. If thereÆs something that is lacking, itÆs gonna be painfully
obvious. So the songÆs guts have to be strong, at least for us, from front to
back.ö
No frills means no distractions from the quality of their blended voices. ôItÆs
the strangest thing when I sing with her,ö White says. ôEven the things we do
with vibrato, typically, theyÆre the sameùwe speed up and slow down at the same
pace. SheÆll ad-lib something live, and the next time around, IÆll sing the
harmony to it. But if I sat and thought about it, I couldnÆt do it.ö For
Williams, whoÆs sold hundreds of thousands of records recording on her own,
sharing the vocals is ôone of my favorite things about The Civil Wars, because
when youÆre a solo artist, you canÆt harmonize while singing the lead. To me,
all harmony is active listening.ö
ThereÆs something circuitously satisfying about the fact that ôactive listeningö
is taking place on-stage at The Civil Wars shows as well as among the audience,
heightening the sensation that itÆs a conversation being eavesdropped on, not
just a performance. So much synchronization to go aroundà but also so much
delicious tension, as the duo hardly shy away from the conflict that gives them
their moniker. Harmonious discord, thy name is The Civil Wars.
White and Williams are never going to forge a complete meeting of the minds.
ôYouÆll be a redneck once IÆm through with you,ö he tells her, teasingly. ôOh,
just try!ö she taunts him. Still a northern California girl after this many
years in Nashville, she says, ôI still canÆt say æyÆall.Æ I still canÆt say
æfixinÆ to.Æ John Paul, you say æmight couldÆ a lot, which freaks me out. But
yeah, somewhere in there, if itÆs only in the melodies, IÆm happy to absorb all
that.ö
And to dish it back out in the form of universal narratives that are both
elliptical and emotional. ôAfter all the writing IÆve done for other artists or
writing for TV/film or solo music,ö says Williams, ôthe ability for John Paul
and I to share stories of whatÆs happened in our lives, either current or past,
and let those inform the way that we write intrinsically makes us care more
about it. WeÆve got songs that deal directly with loss that weÆve had in our own
pasts. The opening song, æTwenty Years,Æ is actually about a family secret, more
on my side of the family. We love to write about these things and hint at it
while not giving the whole thing away. If the stories that weÆre singing about
and the things that weÆre speaking of are true, hopefully theyÆll draw out the
stories of the people who are listening, and that can create some invisible
cycle of safety and exhilaration and freedom, and of being transported somewhere
else for a little moment in time.ö
Somewhere likeà Barton Hollow? Where is the titular location, anyway? ôI guess
itÆs something to do with the picturesque quality of the phrase,ö admits White.
ôItÆs a phrase that youÆre not gonna Google and find, whatsoever. I found that
out the other day. There is no Barton Hollow, that I can find.ö But a few
minutes later, heÆs changed his tune, declaring: ôBarton Hollow is actually a
place that I grew up. ItÆs a little geographic place close to where I grew up
and did a lot of illicit activities,ö White continues, embellishing as he goes,
while his partner dissolves into helpless laughter. ôI have a soft spot for that
place.ö Maybe the transporting Williams talks about has worked its magic on her
partner, too.