Albums : The Civil Wars : Barton Hollow
Albums : The Civil Wars : Barton Hollow
Listen To The Civil Wars : Barton Hollow
Who Is The Civil Wars?
The Civil Wars is a duo composed of singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White. The two met during a Nashville, Tennessee songwriting session in 2008. 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. The duo went on a hiatus in November 2012.
Williams and White met in 2008 during a song writing session or "writing camp" at a music studio in Nashville, Tennessee. In an exclusive interview, Williams stated that the band name was generated, "As I was driving around town looking at all the Civil War monuments I thought about all the wars that we each face. So the name came about that way." According to their web site, the group's name, The Civil Wars, and their song "Poison and Wine", sum up their thematic direction. They are about the good, the bad, and the ugly of relationships.
The duo recorded their performance at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia on April 8, 2009 and created an EP Live at Eddie's Attic, which had been requested over 500,000 times as a free internet download In November, the duo released a digital extended play album, produced by Charlie Peacock, called Poison & Wine and the title song was featured on the TV show, Grey's Anatomy. In December 2010, the duo was featured in Paste's "Best of What's Next" column.
On Feb 1, 2011, The Civil Wars released their debut full length album, Barton Hollow. The album reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Digital Albums chart, sold 25,000 copies in its first week and remained at No. 1 on the iTunes chart for nine days.
The duo performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, at the Sundance Film Festival and ASCAP's Music Cafe. The Civil Wars appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and were featured in the Los Angeles Times. They appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and their "Barton Hollow" video was played on VH1. They were nominated for a CMT Award in the Duo Video of the Year category and appeared on the cover of Pollstar magazine. The Civil Wars appeared a second time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in May, were the opening act for singer Adele's North American tour, were nominated for the Americana Music Awards in the Duo/Group of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year categories, and performed a benefit concert for victims of the 2011 Alabama tornado. In June, they were listed as The Guardian's 'New Band of the Day'.
In the summer of 2011 the duo performed on the Los Angeles radio station KCRW, opened several shows for Emmylou Harris, and performed at Rhode Island's Newport Folk Festival. In September they rejoined Adele's UK tour and were nominated for a Country Music Association Award in the Vocal Duo of the Year category. They performed on the UK television show Later... Live in October and subsequently their Barton Hollow album debuted at No. 22 on the UK Download Chart and No. 54 on the UK Albums Chart the following week.
In October they were reviewed in The New York Times, appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and were featured in Interview. They received the Vanguard Award at the 49th Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards in November.
The duo appeared on the cover of the November issue of Nashville Scene and were a topic of conversation on the radio talk show Sound Opinions. The Civil Wars released the Holiday single "Tracks in the Snow" on 10" white vinyl and the digital version's B-side "O Come O Come Emmanuel", was iTunes's Holiday Single of the Week.
In November 2011, their album Barton Hollow received Grammy nominations in the Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance categories.
In December, The Civil Wars performed at the Grand Ole Opry, and released the single "Safe & Sound" with Taylor Swift and T-Bone Burnett for the film The Hunger Games.
Barton Hollow was included on several Best Albums of 2011 lists, including NPR Music, Paste, American Songwriter, Rough Trade, Amazon.com, Time, iTunes, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, The Tennessean, AllMusic.com and The Wall Street Journal. Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today and Yahoo! Music picked the duo as their 'Best New Artists' and 'Breakout Stars of 2011'.
The duo performed at the Ryman Auditorium in January 2012 and received a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album and were listed at number 15 in Entertainment Weekly's The 30 Greatest Artists Right Now issue. The week following their performance on the Grammys, the band's album Barton Hollow sold over 35,000 copies and peaked on the Billboard 200 at Number 10. They were featured on the cover of Billboard, and their song "Poison and Wine" was featured on an episode of The Vampire Diaries.
The Civil Wars received nominations for three CMT Music Awards, a nomination for Duo/Group of the Year at the Americana Music Awards, and Barton Hollow was nominated for Album of the Year at the A2IM Libera Awards.
In early 2012, the duo performed at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas as a part of the ‘Classroom Sessions’ and partnered with T-Bone Burnett to provide the film score for the documentary A Place At The Table (previously known as Finding North). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the duo also performed.
In February, Forbes featured a piece on "The Golden Age" of music, quoting Williams and White about social media and music piracy, and USA Today ran a Grammy piece on the band defying genre constraint. The group returned to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform the song "Birds of a Feather", and performed at a taping of the TV show, Austin City Limits. They released a photo book, To Whom It May Concern featuring photos by Allister Ann and Tec Petaja, and collaborated on the song "Lily Love" with legendary Irish folk group The Chieftains that was released on their album Voice of Ages.
On March 1, 2012, Barton Hollow was released in the UK and Europe to wide acclaim, and the duo appeared on BBC Breakfast.
The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond soundtrack contained the song "Safe & Sound", the band's duet with Taylor Swift. The Civil Wars recorded another song for the soundtrack, called "Kingdom Come".
The group performed two songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, sang the National Anthem at the Atlanta Braves' opening day at Turner Field, and performed on Good Morning America in the Spring of 2012. They performed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville in March, as a part of the Nashville Ballet's 'Ballet Ball' fundraising event.
In May, the duo was featured in an episode of VH1 Unplugged and a performance and interview with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC's Q. The Civil Wars released a 7" for Record Store Day, featuring covers of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Portishead's "Sour Times", as well as a Live at Amoeba CD. A CBS This Morning episode included an interview with Williams and White speaking about the importance of vinyl.
In June, they attended The White House and performed at the Ford's Theatre Gala honoring Morgan Freeman and Elie Wiesel. The duo performed at the Beale Street Music festival in Memphis, Tennessee, the Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Washington, and Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. They were interviewed as a part of the cover story article in a 2012 issue of American Way magazine.
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.
In October, The Civil Wars' 2009 song "If I Didn't Know Better" was featured on the series premiere of ABC's new show Nashville. They also performed on the AMD stage of the 11th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.
In November 2012 the duo went on hiatus citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition".
In June 2013, after the cancelled tour in 2012, they released the single, "The One That Got Away". The single comes from their upcoming album to be released on August 6, "The Civil Wars"
Barton Hollow Review
After being released last year in their native United States, duo Civil Wars' debut album, Barton Hollow, has now been released in the UK for their fans to get their hands on. The album has already won two Grammy awards and a support slot with Adele who has lavished praise on them, calling them the best live act she has ever seen. Not bad for a band whose popularity has snowballed since one of their songs featured on medical dram, Grey's Anatomy.
Barton Hollow kicks off with '20 years' which has some luscious acoustic guitar playing which is followed by the lovely singing voice of Joy Williams. One particular element of this album is how simplistic the instrumentation is. The album is never over layered with guitars, drums and what not. This allows Williams and John Paul White's singing to flourish without sounding impeded. The singing of the duo becomes the centrepiece for this album.
And this is reflected perfectly in 'To Whom It May Concern' as the duo's voices sing in harmony showing a particular warmth and delicacy complimented by the accompanying string arrangements and acoustic guitar.
One of the highlights on this album comes in the shape of the album's title track, Barton Hollow which is a total foot stomper of a song and reminiscent of Elbow's 'Grounds For Divorce.' Civil Wars' combined vocals constantly go from soaring right back down to a gravel like darkness. After hearing such stripped back acoustic arrangement in the prior tracks it is the most vigorous song on the album.
'Poison and Wine,' one of the album's single's, sees Williams and White's at their best, lyrically it tells the story of emotionally drained lovers. A standout song on the album for the singing's felling of fragility. White's almost quivering like vocal on this helps draw the emotion out in the song as if bringing a character to life.
Upon listening to Civil Wars, you are reminded of the work by Robert Plant and Allison Straus. But Williams and John Paul White manage to create a sound that is easily recognised due to the style of their own voices and the way they intertwine with one another. They help tell the stories in the songs and the sparse music is the perfect background to bring them to life. One of the best albums in the past few years that can delve into human emotion and create a reaction in the listener.
Contact The Civil Wars
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | MySpace
Contact Contactmusic.com
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+
Sources : The Civil Wars Photo | Listen To Barton Hollow | The Civil Wars Biography | Barton Hollow Review
Purchase : Target | iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy Digipak
Listen To The Civil Wars : Barton Hollow
Who Is The Civil Wars?
The Civil Wars is a duo composed of singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White. The two met during a Nashville, Tennessee songwriting session in 2008. 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. The duo went on a hiatus in November 2012.
Williams and White met in 2008 during a song writing session or "writing camp" at a music studio in Nashville, Tennessee. In an exclusive interview, Williams stated that the band name was generated, "As I was driving around town looking at all the Civil War monuments I thought about all the wars that we each face. So the name came about that way." According to their web site, the group's name, The Civil Wars, and their song "Poison and Wine", sum up their thematic direction. They are about the good, the bad, and the ugly of relationships.
The duo recorded their performance at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia on April 8, 2009 and created an EP Live at Eddie's Attic, which had been requested over 500,000 times as a free internet download In November, the duo released a digital extended play album, produced by Charlie Peacock, called Poison & Wine and the title song was featured on the TV show, Grey's Anatomy. In December 2010, the duo was featured in Paste's "Best of What's Next" column.
On Feb 1, 2011, The Civil Wars released their debut full length album, Barton Hollow. The album reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Digital Albums chart, sold 25,000 copies in its first week and remained at No. 1 on the iTunes chart for nine days.
The duo performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, at the Sundance Film Festival and ASCAP's Music Cafe. The Civil Wars appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and were featured in the Los Angeles Times. They appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and their "Barton Hollow" video was played on VH1. They were nominated for a CMT Award in the Duo Video of the Year category and appeared on the cover of Pollstar magazine. The Civil Wars appeared a second time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in May, were the opening act for singer Adele's North American tour, were nominated for the Americana Music Awards in the Duo/Group of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year categories, and performed a benefit concert for victims of the 2011 Alabama tornado. In June, they were listed as The Guardian's 'New Band of the Day'.
In the summer of 2011 the duo performed on the Los Angeles radio station KCRW, opened several shows for Emmylou Harris, and performed at Rhode Island's Newport Folk Festival. In September they rejoined Adele's UK tour and were nominated for a Country Music Association Award in the Vocal Duo of the Year category. They performed on the UK television show Later... Live in October and subsequently their Barton Hollow album debuted at No. 22 on the UK Download Chart and No. 54 on the UK Albums Chart the following week.
In October they were reviewed in The New York Times, appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and were featured in Interview. They received the Vanguard Award at the 49th Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards in November.
The duo appeared on the cover of the November issue of Nashville Scene and were a topic of conversation on the radio talk show Sound Opinions. The Civil Wars released the Holiday single "Tracks in the Snow" on 10" white vinyl and the digital version's B-side "O Come O Come Emmanuel", was iTunes's Holiday Single of the Week.
In November 2011, their album Barton Hollow received Grammy nominations in the Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance categories.
In December, The Civil Wars performed at the Grand Ole Opry, and released the single "Safe & Sound" with Taylor Swift and T-Bone Burnett for the film The Hunger Games.
Barton Hollow was included on several Best Albums of 2011 lists, including NPR Music, Paste, American Songwriter, Rough Trade, Amazon.com, Time, iTunes, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, The Tennessean, AllMusic.com and The Wall Street Journal. Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today and Yahoo! Music picked the duo as their 'Best New Artists' and 'Breakout Stars of 2011'.
The duo performed at the Ryman Auditorium in January 2012 and received a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album and were listed at number 15 in Entertainment Weekly's The 30 Greatest Artists Right Now issue. The week following their performance on the Grammys, the band's album Barton Hollow sold over 35,000 copies and peaked on the Billboard 200 at Number 10. They were featured on the cover of Billboard, and their song "Poison and Wine" was featured on an episode of The Vampire Diaries.
The Civil Wars received nominations for three CMT Music Awards, a nomination for Duo/Group of the Year at the Americana Music Awards, and Barton Hollow was nominated for Album of the Year at the A2IM Libera Awards.
In early 2012, the duo performed at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas as a part of the ‘Classroom Sessions’ and partnered with T-Bone Burnett to provide the film score for the documentary A Place At The Table (previously known as Finding North). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the duo also performed.
In February, Forbes featured a piece on "The Golden Age" of music, quoting Williams and White about social media and music piracy, and USA Today ran a Grammy piece on the band defying genre constraint. The group returned to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform the song "Birds of a Feather", and performed at a taping of the TV show, Austin City Limits. They released a photo book, To Whom It May Concern featuring photos by Allister Ann and Tec Petaja, and collaborated on the song "Lily Love" with legendary Irish folk group The Chieftains that was released on their album Voice of Ages.
On March 1, 2012, Barton Hollow was released in the UK and Europe to wide acclaim, and the duo appeared on BBC Breakfast.
The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond soundtrack contained the song "Safe & Sound", the band's duet with Taylor Swift. The Civil Wars recorded another song for the soundtrack, called "Kingdom Come".
The group performed two songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, sang the National Anthem at the Atlanta Braves' opening day at Turner Field, and performed on Good Morning America in the Spring of 2012. They performed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville in March, as a part of the Nashville Ballet's 'Ballet Ball' fundraising event.
In May, the duo was featured in an episode of VH1 Unplugged and a performance and interview with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC's Q. The Civil Wars released a 7" for Record Store Day, featuring covers of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Portishead's "Sour Times", as well as a Live at Amoeba CD. A CBS This Morning episode included an interview with Williams and White speaking about the importance of vinyl.
In June, they attended The White House and performed at the Ford's Theatre Gala honoring Morgan Freeman and Elie Wiesel. The duo performed at the Beale Street Music festival in Memphis, Tennessee, the Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Washington, and Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. They were interviewed as a part of the cover story article in a 2012 issue of American Way magazine.
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.
In October, The Civil Wars' 2009 song "If I Didn't Know Better" was featured on the series premiere of ABC's new show Nashville. They also performed on the AMD stage of the 11th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.
In November 2012 the duo went on hiatus citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition".
In June 2013, after the cancelled tour in 2012, they released the single, "The One That Got Away". The single comes from their upcoming album to be released on August 6, "The Civil Wars"
Barton Hollow Review
After being released last year in their native United States, duo Civil Wars' debut album, Barton Hollow, has now been released in the UK for their fans to get their hands on. The album has already won two Grammy awards and a support slot with Adele who has lavished praise on them, calling them the best live act she has ever seen. Not bad for a band whose popularity has snowballed since one of their songs featured on medical dram, Grey's Anatomy.
Barton Hollow kicks off with '20 years' which has some luscious acoustic guitar playing which is followed by the lovely singing voice of Joy Williams. One particular element of this album is how simplistic the instrumentation is. The album is never over layered with guitars, drums and what not. This allows Williams and John Paul White's singing to flourish without sounding impeded. The singing of the duo becomes the centrepiece for this album.
And this is reflected perfectly in 'To Whom It May Concern' as the duo's voices sing in harmony showing a particular warmth and delicacy complimented by the accompanying string arrangements and acoustic guitar.
One of the highlights on this album comes in the shape of the album's title track, Barton Hollow which is a total foot stomper of a song and reminiscent of Elbow's 'Grounds For Divorce.' Civil Wars' combined vocals constantly go from soaring right back down to a gravel like darkness. After hearing such stripped back acoustic arrangement in the prior tracks it is the most vigorous song on the album.
'Poison and Wine,' one of the album's single's, sees Williams and White's at their best, lyrically it tells the story of emotionally drained lovers. A standout song on the album for the singing's felling of fragility. White's almost quivering like vocal on this helps draw the emotion out in the song as if bringing a character to life.
Upon listening to Civil Wars, you are reminded of the work by Robert Plant and Allison Straus. But Williams and John Paul White manage to create a sound that is easily recognised due to the style of their own voices and the way they intertwine with one another. They help tell the stories in the songs and the sparse music is the perfect background to bring them to life. One of the best albums in the past few years that can delve into human emotion and create a reaction in the listener.
Contact The Civil Wars
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | MySpace
Contact Contactmusic.com
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+
Sources : The Civil Wars Photo | Listen To Barton Hollow | The Civil Wars Biography | Barton Hollow Review
Purchase : Target | iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy Digipak
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