The Civil Wars Claim Victory With Their Unexpected Union
To say the Civil Wars - known individually as John Paul White and Joy Williams -- are zooming ahead in the music business is no exaggeration.
Sure, the band's debut album 'Barton Hollow' is No. 1 on iTunes Albums Charts this week, but that's only part of the story. Consider their January 13 appearance on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,' or their 2009 EP 'Poison & Wine' which reached No. 1 on the iTunes' singer-songwriter chart, with the title song gaining national exposure on the TV's 'Grey's Anatomy.'
"We're a relatively new band," Joy tells Nashville's Tennessean newspaper. "So to have opportunities like [Leno] and for the stars to align in the way that they have, on top of the hard work we've been doing, it's always such a boost of energy and adrenaline. It definitely was when we were singing last night. Last night! Goodness ..."
Although the duo sound as if they cut their musical teeth together, they only met about 18 months ago thanks to prodding by their respective music publishers. Although neither of the then-independent singer-songwriters wanted to go to the meeting, they found in each other a musical soul mate right from the start.
"To sit down and almost immediately have this strange connection, that was nothing short of staggering," says Joy. "It was like we'd known each other for a very long time, though we'd only met 10 minutes before. I knew where he was going when he was singing, and he knew where I was going to go when I was singing. Harmonies naturally flowed out of that."
The resultant sound on the 12-track 'Barton Hollow,' which was recorded in Nashville, has been called folk, indie folk, country-folk, roots, and even alt-country. The scramble to define the sound is understandable but Reg's Coffee House host Scott Register, says it's clearly magic.
"In my 13 years on the radio, few of the artists I've championed had as immediate a reaction as the Civil Wars," says Scott, who is based in Birmingham, Ala. "This band has the 'it' factor that you look for."
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