The Civil Wars

The Civil Wars were an American musical duo composed of Joy Williams and John Paul White. Formed in 2008, their style blended folk, country, and Americana, characterized by haunting harmonies and poignant lyrics.

The duo gained recognition with their debut album Barton Hollow in 2011, which won two Grammy Awards. Their eponymous second album was released in 2013 and further solidified their success. They won two additional Grammy Awards before their breakup in 2014.

Both Williams and White had solo careers prior to meeting at a songwriting workshop in Nashville in 2008. Williams had recorded several moderately successful albums and was signed as a songwriter to Warner/Chappell; White had independently released The Long Goodbye—which was originally set to be released through a deal with Capitol Records—and was writing for EMI Music. At the workshop, approximately 25 songwriters were assembled by music publishers to write radio singles for an unnamed band later identified as the country group Gloriana. Williams and White were randomly paired to write together, and quickly discovered an affinity. In a 2012 interview, Williams said that "when he started singing it was like I knew where he was going to go before he went there." In the same interview, White said that when he and Williams "started singing together, there was this weird click; it was like there was a dance going where I knew I could lead her but she could lead me, too." Following the workshop, White and Williams made immediate plans to meet again. They wrote the song "Falling" during their first session, which took place at Williams' house.

Looking for a name for the project, Williams came up with the Civil Wars, which has no historical meaning, but rather is based on the quote "be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" attributed to Ian Maclaren. According to Williams, "as I was thinking about the music we make, that sense of battle seemed applicable." The duo performed for the first time as The Civil Wars at the French Quarter Cafe in Nashville on April 7, 2009. Williams' former producer Charlie Peacock was in attendance, and impressed by their dynamics and on-stage chemistry, began working with them the following day.

On April 8, 2009, Shalom Aberle recorded The Civil Wars' second live show, opening for Will Hoge at Eddie's Attic. Eight of the songs that were recorded that night were on Live at Eddie's Attic, which was released on June 30, 2009 as a free download on The Civil Wars' website. In addition to a live and demo version of "Falling", the record included "Poison & Wine", covers of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love", and Sade's "No Ordinary Love", and "If I Didn't Know Better", which was later covered in an episode of Nashville. Released through Sensibility Music, a recording, marketing, licensing and management company established by Williams and her husband, Civil Wars manager Nate Yetton, Live at Eddie's Attic had been downloaded more than 700,000 times as of 2014.

In November 2009, "Poison & Wine" was used in its entirety as a needle drop during a pivotal montage at the end of the ninth episode of season six of Grey's Anatomy. At the time, the song was available only on Live at Eddie's Attic. White, Williams and Yetton found out about the placement only four days prior to the episode's airing. They uploaded the newly recorded version of the song to iTunes, and created a music video for "Poison & Wine" in an afternoon. As the video was being put online, Williams and White were watching the Grey's Anatomy episode, and the uploading was completed almost to the second that the last note of the song played. Through Grey's Anatomy, The Civil Wars were exposed to a substantial national audience, which included Taylor Swift, who declared her love for The Civil Wars via Twitter. "Poison & Wine" was released a week after Grey's Anatomy aired, and debuted at #4 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart.

The duo toured consistently throughout 2009 and 2010.

Williams, White, and Peacock returned to the Art House to record The Civil Wars debut album, Barton Hollow, which was released on February 1, 2011. Recorded in the studio's sanctuary and in the more conventional Studio A Live Room, the production was built around vocals, acoustic guitar and piano, with drums, percussion and overdubs largely absent. Aided in part by a January appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and support from Swift, Hillary Scott of Lady A, and Sara Bareilles, Barton Hollow was the #1 downloaded album on iTunes the week it was released. It also charted at #1 on the Billboard Digital Albums chart, #1 on the Billboard Folk Albums chart, #2 on the Rock Albums Chart, and at #10 on the Billboard 200.