The Civil Wars is a group composed of singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White. The two met during a Nashville, Tennessee songwriting session in 2008. After recording 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 at the 2012 ceremony.
Williams and White met during a song writing session at a music studio in Nashville, Tennessee in 2008. According to the duo’s web site, they recorded their performance at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia on April 8, 2009 and created a free Internet download called Live at Eddie’s Attic. 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 Magazine’s «Best of What’s Next» column. The duo’s web site says that the name of their band, The Civil Wars, and their thematic direction, is best summed up in the lyrics of the song «Poison & Wine». It is about the the good, the bad, and the ugly of married life.
In 2011, The Civil Wars performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, at the Sundance Film Festival and ASCAP’s Music Cafe. Their album Barton Hollow, produced by Charlie Peacock was released in 2011 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 9 days. 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 featured 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 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 their Barton Hollow album debuted at No. 22 on the UK Download Chart and No. 54 on the UK Albums Chart.
In October the duo was featured in The New York Times, appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and were featured in Interview Magazine. 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 [35] 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.
On November 30, 2011, Barton Hollow received Grammy nominations in the Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance categories. Numerous publications noted that The Civil Wars were snubbed a Best New Artist nomination by The Grammys.
In December, The Civil Wars performed at the Grand Ole Opry’s Ryman Auditorium. and composed the song Safe & Sound with Taylor Swift and T Bone Burnett for the film The Hunger Games. The Civil Wars also recorded another song for The Hunger Games soundtrack (The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called «Kingdom Come». The soundtrack is set to be released on March 20th, 2012.
Barton Hollow was included on several Best Albums of 2011 lists, including NPR Music, Paste Magazine, American Songwriter, Rough Trade, Amazon.com, Time Magazine, iTunes, Huffington Post, Associated Press, The Tennesseean, AllMusic.com and The Wall Street Journal.
Entertainment Weekly, USA Today and Yahoo Music picked the duo as their Best New Artists and Breakout Stars of 2011.
«Poison & Wine» was also featured on the February 16, 2012 episode of «The Vampire Diaries».
In February 2012, Joy Williams of the Civil Wars announced that she is pregnant. She and her husband Nate Yetton are expecting their first child in late June.
The Civil Wars have U.S. sales of more than 280,000 copies and 360,000 digital tracks for their album, Barton Hollow, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
