In October, the Americana Music Association's Honors and Awards show was held at the legendary and breathtakingly beautiful Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. On hand were various luminaries from the Americana music community – both onstage and in the audience.
Folks like the Avett Brothers, Robert Plant's Band of Joy, Lucinda Williams, and Gregg Allman performed. But the act that brought down the house? The Civil Wars.
Their rendition of "Barton Hollow" left the rafters ringing and the audience stunned. There was a beat or two of awed silence before the standing ovation, before applause crackled through the theatre.
Fast forward about a month, andThe Civil Wars take the stage at the sold out and arguably equally breathtaking Turner Hall, where the duo recorded two songs earlier this year that have just been released on a 10" white vinyl holiday EP. The audience is justifiably rapt. Two voices and one guitar utterly fill the ballroom.
Onstage, California-to-Tennessee transplant Joy Williams stands to the right of Alabaman John Paul White while he plays guitar. Periodically, for a few tunes, Williams sits behind a piano.
Always their voices create a paradoxically rich yet airy sound. They dress for show like performers respectful of their audience, Williams in a short, full skirted little black dress, long lithe legs and black high heels, White in a tuxedo.
Their sound is sparse and unusual, provocative with eerily blending vocals, haunting and beautiful. Having met as songwriters, becoming entranced with each other's gifts, they now create music together that seems as rich with history and nuance as their name.
The Civil Wars' Turner Hall show seems genuinely thrilling to the duo; they've been here before, perhaps six months back, to a much smaller crowd. This crowd is in the palms of their expressive hands from the first notes, and they are humbled and delighted with infectious gratitude.
Between songs, their affectionate banter is contagious; Williams giggles, the audience laughs along happily. White pulls off his bow tie and Williams teases him about disrobing further while a few females hoot in the audience. White, shaking his tousled hair: "I think that's one woman with a comb."
Running through selections from their Sensibility Records release, "Barton Hollow," the duo forsakes the friendly banter easily as each song begins, immersing themselves in the music, crafting passionate renditions of "Poison & Wine" and the album's gripping title track.
Williams' expressive gyrations don't seem affected – she throws every part of herself into this passionate story-telling. White's musicianship, alternately delicate and powerful, swells under their voices.
A deliriously happy crowd brought an equally excited The Civil Wars back for a two-song encore; they finished up with a sassy version of "Billie Jean."
Opening for The Civil Wars was Los Angeles quintet Milo Greene, who performed an entertaining, atmospheric set with deep backlit staging.
See more photos from the show.
