Nashville War and Treaty's album highlights the duo’s most authentic selves

Critically acclaimed vocal duo The War and Treaty — comprised of husband and wife Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter — are seated at a 6-foot-long vintage wooden dining room table at their Hendersonville home roughly a mile from the permanent resting places of Johnny and June Carter Cash.

The Trotter's teenage and adult children buzz around their home while their day-to-day manager and a publicist are busy charting their professional course for the first month of the most audacious year of their careers.

The country award-nominated and Americana and folk award-winning duo opens the year with a three-night stand with the Nashville Symphony on Jan. 16-18 and closes with the Valentine's Day release of "Plus One." The 18-track album is their most extended work in the decade the tandem has been releasing music together.

"We've made music people can uniquely experience because we decided to more intentionally and personally connect with their hearts," Michael Trotter tells The Tennessean.

A self-determined journey to stardom

Things weren't always so pastoral and pristine for The War and Treaty.

Just a decade ago, Michael Trotter, a Cleveland native, was a homeless, PTSD-addled Army veteran, the descendant of multiple generations of enslaved people and blue-collar laborers.

Tanya Trotter (formerly Blount), raised in Washington, D.C., was the daughter of Afro-Latino Panamanian immigrants who moved to the U.S. to claim a piece of the American Dream. She also had two decades as an acclaimed singer and touring musician, including appearing alongside Lauryn Hill in the film "Sister Act 2" and receiving the co-signs of R&B legends Freddie Jackson and Luther Vandross, among others.

They fell in love, unified by a strong religious base and by being natural entertainers and musicians. Contemplating a conversation with them, it's how they finally mirror the comfort in the frank honesty their inspirations had in 1973 that provides the most extraordinary insight into their surging success.

In that year, Michael's inspiration, Johnny Cash, released the redemptive album "The Gospel Road" and Tanya's inspiration, Aretha Franklin, was recording her 20th studio album, "Let Me in Your Life." That recording features songs initially recorded by jazz legends like Nancy Wilson and written by an eclectic set of singer-songwriters, including Ashford and Simpson, Leon Russell, Bill Withers, Bobby Womack and Stevie Wonder.

"Plus One" ultimately finds the Trotters at a resolution with how subconsciously achieving their parents' dreams for them allows the honesty that has weighed on their souls for their entire lives to emerge.

In addition, The War and Treaty's self-determined navigation through five decades of musical history extending beyond the lives of their inspirations has restored creative lineages that establish musical ties greater than culture, gender, genre and race.

'Humbled by gratitude while standing in confidence'

For Tanya Trotter, "Plus One" represents the best evolution of what she and her husband have achieved while living in Music City — especially during the past half-decade.

In 2018, legendary musician and producer Buddy Miller helmed their album "Healing Tide." "Hearts Town" in 2020 achieved alternative radio airplay and featured Country Music Hall of Famer Emmylou Harris.

The 2022 EP "Blank Page" and subsequent 2023 album "Lover's Game" opened doors, including that of rootsy country rocker Zach Bryan, who joined with the duo on the 2024 streaming favorite "Hey Driver." They performed at a Kamala Harris presidential campaign rally in November.

In 2025, The War and Treaty are co-signed by Dierks Bentley, the Brothers Osborne, Post Malone and Chris Stapleton, among others.

Their new album features Americana's 2023 Artist of the Year Billy Strings and, among many co-writers, Miranda Lambert, the most-awarded performer in Academy of Country Music Awards history.

"Finally," Tanya Trotter says, "The War and Treaty tapped all of the way into what could happen if we made an album that could sound uncompromised but still fit into playlists and radio alongside our contemporaries, who for the past few years have been excitedly pulling us to the side and been supporting our work."

With Lambert, the duo wrote "Love Like Whiskey," a soulful and lovelorn Texas country ballad. For more longtime fans of The War and Treaty, pairing with bluegrass superstar Strings for "Drink From Me" develops into a timeless bluesy stomper.

"Balancing being humbled by gratitude (to be able to learn and grow as artists) while standing in our confidence has allowed us to gain the perspective to understand how to let the music industry into our authenticity (without having to mortgage our humanity)," Michael Trotter adds.

Meeting expectations

"(The War and Treaty) finally reflects outwardly what we feel like on the inside," Trotter says, while adjusting a massive gold ring on his left ring finger.

"(Louisiana-born blues icon) Fats Domino is one of the greatest musicians and artists of our time. He grew from leading a lowly and quiet life to being the type of person who wore multiple rings to reflect how he was able to develop his artistry to a place where he could look better than how he felt."

The statement marks one of the half-dozen times in conversation with The Tennessean that feeling like the weight of meeting the expectations that others have placed on Trotter's life and art for the four decades he's occupied space on Earth is being removed from his thick, mountainous frame.

Each time, the moment nearly reduced him to tears.

Uniquely embodying and embracing country authenticity

The Trotters recall observing Grammy-winning folk duo the Civil Wars as their greatest inspirations a decade ago. Ten years later, the idea that their fans aren't into so much of Joy Williams and John Paul White's haunting poignancy and gothic country aesthetics but rather into being worked into heart palpitations, belting lyrics until they're hoarse and standing at attention for multiple boisterous ovations shows how far they've come.

On "Plus One," songs like the ecstatic gospel shouter "Called You by Your Name" reflect their honest understanding of expressing themselves best onstage.

The tandem is now focused on delivering a sound in which the group's presentation, music and styling form an aesthetic that aggressively challenges and motivates country's commercial marketplace as well as live crowds.

"We've finally learned how who we uniquely fit best into country music's culture and lifestyle," Michael Trotter adds. "Dialing into creating memorable experiences (that mirror) what people comfortably hear, see and know to represent who our songs say we are authentically will allow The War and Treaty to grow as country artists, more than anything else.

'Mr. Fun'

Seventy-five percent of The War and Treaty's "Plus One" are love songs.

Notably, "Mr. Fun," a waltz about an emotionally dangerous romantic affair, revives a space between the all-white barn dances and all-Black Chitlin' Circuit stages of yesteryear. The power of feral arousal that agitates this space between sacred and secular music was once a quiet inspiration for country's sounds.

Tanya recalls a recent moment when they played their new soulful ballad at a radio station-sponsored guitar pull in Augusta, Georgia.

Seven decades prior, Augusta was a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit club touring run. The city also featured Claude Casey and the Sagedusters hosting WGAC's "Barn Dance."

In 2024, while appearing in front of 2,500 people in Augusta alongside Lee Brice, Chris Janson, Zach Top and super-group the Frontmen of Country, the Trotters noted a level of unintentional, nearly all-white segregation in the room.

"The crowd were surprised, then got emotional. Country's modern mainstream wasn't prepared to hear things inspired by the other music their grandparents and parents listened to," Tanya Trotter says with a laughs.

"Mahalia Jackson and Minnie Pearl were friends back then," Michael Trotter says, linking a gospel icon and Grand Ole Opry performer.

"The combination of loud, raw aggression, beauty and frustration in the music and our voices strengthens and unifies people. No emotion or person is left in the background."

The value of achieving comfort in authenticity

The duo mentions their trio of showcases with the Nashville Symphony, plus three dozen tour dates in the first half of 2025, as offering something more significant than ever before concerning how The War and Treaty can impact the music industry.

"We intend to play a role in defining how country music affects America's attitude in the next generation," Michael Trotter says. "The genre being so open to intentionally messing with how people perceive what can be made when you blend it with gospel, rock and soul is a gift to how we create music."

Tanya Trotter offers a note that bottom-lines so much of what she and her husband have stated previously.

"Because we're no longer (unnerved) by country music, we've crafted a beautiful record that comfortably exists within our authenticity."