The Civil Wars 'Link Arms' and Forge a New Career With 'Barton Hollow'

Posted on Apr 26th 2011 4:00PM by Garin Pirnia
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Jon Willis

With only their second live show ever as a duo, Joy Williams and John Paul White of the Civil Wars recorded a live album at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Ga. in 2009 and released the record as a free download through their MySpace page, which eventually garnered over 100,000 downloads. Fiercely independent, the Wars have strategically used Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about their new projects including the February release of their genre bending debut full-length, 'Barton Hollow.' Released on their own Sensibility Music label, the album surprisingly peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard charts.

"The unique thing about the dynamic that John Paul White and I have is the fact that it's felt so effortless, the combining of what would seem to be two fully independent solo artists," Williams tells Spinner. "That blend has been a really natural thing and we tend to really find ourselves along the same lines in terms of what we want to accomplish and how we want to do it. That's been fate or luck or whatever, but regardless, I'm thankful for the fact it's been relatively streamlined combining."

Before collaborating as a group, Williams and White had successful solo careers: she started releasing Christian-pop albums as a teenager, while his music was steeped more in his background of country. "Being with her pulls stuff out of me that I've kind of suppressed, like my country-bluegrass background and that I've always been a rock artist," White says. "I feel like I'm pulling things out of her that would not come out had we stayed solo artists."

The duo, who have "linked arms in the creative process," write their songs at Williams' Nashville pad and say their songwriting manifests through conversations they have. "We're both married to other people so we have a lot of the same stories," says White. "Naturally, we talk about that. Some of that stuff finds its way into songs and some of it doesn't. We have poetic license to not tell people which parts are true and which are not."

After successful trips to Sundance and SXSW, the Wars say they'll keep touring until "they hate it," but that won't be anytime soon. "Our M.O. from the beginning was 'please ourselves,'" says White. "It's not easy to do. It's easy to say it. We've both had solo careers before this and we've seen the good, the bad and the ugly and now we're at a place where we're like, 'You know what? Let's just please ourselves.'"

With their success so far, the Civil Wars realize anything is possible. "We'd love to really saturate the US and then we'd love to play Europe and really let the sky be the limit," says Williams, "because at this point the pipe dreams that we've had strangely and remarkably been coming true."

Watch the Civil Wars' Video for 'Poison & Wine'

Watch Spinner's Video Interview With the Civil Wars

Download Civil Wars Songs | Buy Civil Wars Albums