It's this kind of tangible energy bubbling underneath visible emotions that drives the duo's debut album, Barton Hollow. Track by track, note by note, they build stories of regret, longing, and relationship claustrophobia that feel as dully constant as a car's engine buzzing through your body as you try to pay attention to the road. Melodies are often upbeat and sing-alongable, but always there's an undercurrent of what-ifs and should-have-beens. I keep hitting replay on "The Violet Hour," a hushed, pulsating instrumental conversation, a real masterpiece of simplicity.
The Civil Wars' genre is hard to nail down, which is great. The album melts the lines between John Paul White's Alabama front-porch folkrock with Joy Williams' big city background in Christian pop ballads, his buttery Eddie Veddery tenor growl and her Downy-soft soprano seemingly born to compliment each other.
I'll admit it -- I mistakenly decided they were mismatched when I looked at the Barton Hollow cover art. I chuckled that Dana Delaney had started a band with Johnny Depp's character from "The Tourist." Fifteen seconds in to track one, and I was put in my place. That's the magic The Civil Wars make. On paper, no one would put these two together. Just goes to show that opposites attract and can blend into something unbelievably awesome.
Barton Hollow was released February 1 by Sensibility Music. To get a listen to what a live show with The Civil Wars is like (a guy and girl joking around and singing their hearts out with a guitar), download their recording from Eddie's Attic in Georgia for free here.
