John Paul White and Joy Williams: Two very different artists, from two very different places, found a strange alchemy together as the iconic duo, The Civil Wars – a lightning-in-a-bottle partnership that gave us ‘Barton Hollow,’ their Grammy-winning debut album, now being celebrated with a special deluxe edition for its 13th anniversary. Atwood Magazine spoke with producer Charlie Peacock, who helped shape the band’s sound and legacy, to reflect on the record’s creation and its enduring impact.

Stream: ‘Barton Hollow’ – The Civil Wars

Americana with elements of French nouveau jazz, country, pop, folk, bluegrass, classical, and Appalachian, The Civil Wars could never quite be pinned down, which was half of their appeal.

The other half was the chemistry both John Paul White and Joy Williams exuded on stage and in their recordings. Their exquisite harmonisation often felt like a dance. Two very different artists, from two very different places, found a strange kind of alchemy together, a lightening in a bottle moment for the ages.

The story goes that White and Williams both met at an artists’ retreat in Nashville where they and other songwriters had assembled to write a hit song for an unnamed band. White and Williams were randomly paired to write together and very quickly discovered they had chemistry, despite coming from very different places musically and releasing very different music to each other prior to meeting.

Williams said that“when he (White) started singing it was like I knew where he was going to go before he went there.”Likewise, 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 on from the workshop, White and Williams made plans to meet again. They wrote the song “Falling” during their first session, and as they say, the rest is history.

In 2011, The Civil Wars released their debut album Barton Hollow, which sent seismic shockwaves through the music industry.

Firstly, the record was recorded and released independently on Sensibility Music, a label co-owned by Williams and her then-husband Nate Yetton, and secondly, because no one foresaw the genre of Americana suddenly becoming so popular and sought after in the late-2000s.

Barton Hollow is an iconic album and still is one of the most well crafted, exquisitely produced and beautiful records from the past decade.

There’s a note underneath your front door
That I wrote twenty years ago
Yellow paper and a faded picture
And a secret in an envelope

The opening song “20 Years” contains the most unusual, yet familiar chord progression. The song still sounds like coming home to a home you didn’t know existed.

The longing, achingly beautiful love song “Poison & Wine” introduced The Civil Wars to a global audience when it appeared in full on Grey’s Anatomy.

I wish you’d hold me when I turn my back
The less I give the more I get back
Ooh, your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don’t have a choice, but I still choose you

“I’ve Got This Friend” is perhaps the only upbeat song of the record. Two people seemingly talking about their respective friends who would be perfect for one another, but are they really talking about each other? “My Father’s Father” is another favourite. It’s atmospheric and poetic. Williams and White both said that election of President Barack Obama and the message of hope and change that swept the nation provided inspiration.

The winding roads that led me here
Burn like coal and dry like tears
So here’s my hope, my tired soul
And here’s my ticket, I want to go
Home

The duo’s songs always explored the darker side of love, loyalty and life. “C’est la mort” – translated as “It’s Death” – is about following your love into death so as not to be alone. The title track, “Barton Hollow,” for its swampy, bluesy and animated arrangement is effectively about running away from a very bad thing you’ve done and probably not ever being able to really leave it behind. The closing song, “Birds of a Feather,” which has Parisian influence all over it, tells the tale of two lovers who are equally bad for each other but who can’t do without each other.

She’s the sea I’m sinkin’ in
He’s the ink under my skin
Sometimes I can’t tell where I am
Where I leave off and he begins
But who could do without you?
And who could do without you?

The Civil Wars explored not just the bad parts of relationships but the honest parts too that are neither bad nor good; they just are.

You can hear it in the first version of “Poison & Wine,” “You only know what I want you to, I know everything you don’t want me to, Oh, your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine, You think your dreams are the same as mine.” Artists don’t write songs about the mundane undertones in relationships, but The Civil Wars did and did it beautifully.

The duo were critically and commercially acclaimed, winning the two Grammys they were nominated for in 2012, for Barton Hollow, produced by Charlie Peacock, and one for their collaboration with Taylor Swift on her song “Safe and Sound” for The Hunger Games soundtrack. The Civil Wars toured extensively around the world whilst releasing many EPs and live LPs, until they abruptly cancelled their European tour in 2012 and retreated to their separate spaces. White and Williams did come together to finish off recording their sophomore self-titled album, The Civil Wars, also produced by Peacock, but the reunion was short lived and they officially separated in 2014.

Both had careers before The Civil Wars and picked those back up after the duo disentangled. Williams released her EDM-inflected record VENUS in 2015, followed by her Grammy Nominated record Front Porch in 2018, whilst White founded Single Lock Records in 2013, an independent label in Florence, Alabama. He then released his critically acclaimed record rock and country Beulah in 2016 and his countrypolitan record, The Hurting Kind in 2019. Their producer and collaborator, Charlie Peacock went on to record and produce more albums with bands such as The Lone Bellow, American Idol alumnus Kris Allen, Lenachka, Switchfoot, and many more. Peacock has also written a memoir of his career as a musician and producer.

Recently, Dualtone Records released a deluxe version of Barton Hollow on vinyl for the first time, with 5 bonus tracks, an etched disc, and brand new album artwork.

The bonus tracks include: “Go,” “Pressing Flowers,” “Tip of My Tongue,” a cover of The Jacksons 5’s “I Want You Back,” and the American standard, “You Are My Sunshine,” which were never available together on vinyl until now.

The Civil Wars’ producer, Charlie Peacock, agreed to speak to Atwood Magazine about the new vinyl pressing and what Barton Hollow and the band now mean to him, 17 years from when the The Civil Wars came into existence. Joy Williams, who currently lives in Nashville with her young family, and John Paul White, who resides in Florence, Alabama with his wife and children, were unavailable to take part in the article.

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A CONVERSATION WITH CHARLIE PEACOCK

Charlie Peacock: Well first, I’m honored to have produced it and to have had the privilege to work with Joy and John Paul – definitely star-bright highlight of a long career. And vinyl, God bless it, just won’t go away. So this is another opportunity for vinyl connoisseurs to learn about The Civil Wars for the first time. And what a great sonic way to discover them.

Charlie Peacock: We recorded the Poison & Wine EP first in 2009 and the title cut is what captured Taylor Swift’s attention and she helped blow it up—along with Grey’s Anatomy playing the entire song in an evocative scene (and this is the version on Barton Hollow). So, we started the full-length Barton Hollow with a lot of proverbial wind in the sails—a ton of confidence that we were on to something unique. We kept following that path.

Production-wise, I kept saying I was taking sonic Polaroids of great performances. That was the ethos. And we got it right. Or so the public told us through heaps of affirmation and ringing the cash register. Barton Hollow was an indie Gold Record recording. Which was unheard of then – and especially for Folk/Americiana music. The whole world came calling.

Charlie Peacock: Even though I was as “inside baseball” as a human could be with every note of it, Barton Hollow still surprises me. I’ll go several years without hearing it and then listen and be blown away – a fan’s reaction to the artistry of those two. So special.

I’ve produced well over a hundred albums, and many of them are very good, but only a few will stand the test of time like Barton Hollow will. Even though it was at the epicenter of the 2000s Folk/Americana boom, it is a record for all times. So I guess I feel increasingly grateful to have helped create a record in the folk trajectory of Peter, Paul, & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings and so many more.

Charlie Peacock: Three of the bonus tracks are from the aforementioned Poison & Wine EP, so I think I would go with the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” This is a perfect example of how powerful the essence of the duo was. They could reinvent and transform any song into their iconoclastic style. That’s a serious gift. Plus it’s a great song!

Charlie Peacock: Yes. “Poison & Wine.” A perfect song and performance. I’m just lucky I was there to see it happen live in my living room. Joy’s playing my piano—one I play everyday. Poison & Wine is living in it somewhere.

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Barton Hollow

an album by The Civil Wars