Austin City Limits Review: Sunday: The Civil Wars
By Bradford Harrison at October 15, 2012 | 5:58 am | Print
Photo courtesy of ACL Festival
Singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White only met in 2008 and their group, The Civil Wars, only released a full album (Barton Hollow) last year, but the duo is now firmly implanted in our pop-culture consciousness, especially after the band won the Grammy Award forBest Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album in 2012. They have also headlined “The Hunger Games” soundtrack with Taylor Swift of all things and people.
All that has to be a great (and slightly bewildering) journey, that brought them to ACL 2012. Many in the crowd who had not seen or heard the group, were amazed by ability of the duo to hold, then captivate the audience with just two people, a guitar, and a violin.
Their sound is nothing particularly innovative, but it’s the earnestness and seriousness of the duo’s soulful songwriting that has brought them to where they are today. More collaborations are reportedly in the works, so we should be seeing more of this very talented group soon, thus even furthering the Civil Wars’ hold on our folk-guitar consciousnesses.