Friday Hype: Watch and Listen to The Civil Wars

It is for good reason that entertainment writers should avoid hyperbole. It’s always tempting to embellish a little about an act or show you like, simply because it makes for more interesting writing, but there are moments where you give thanks for keeping your powder dry and your effusive praise to a well-deserved minimum.

And this was one of those evenings.

Coming down to visit my family for a long weekend in Denton, Texas, I decided to spend some time with my sister and some friends attending Conferette 35, an up-and-coming four-day music festival with an indie/Americana bent.

The fest is decidedly coming into its own in its eighth year, packing a full schedule across multiple venues with established acts like Big Boi, Mavis Staples and Damien Jurado, as well as indie buzz bands like Gayngs, Dan Deacon and Local Natives. Past headliners have included larger acts like the Flaming Lips, and the festival does a great job of pulling in a nice blend of local talent as well as acts on their way to SXSW in Austin.

On this night, a very late rainy Sunday, I caught a solo set on the patio at Dan's Silverleaf from Hold Steady alum Franz Nicolay, a funny and highly entertaining moustachioed gent with a Cabaret-style one-man band act reminiscent of a gypsy Tom Waits.

As the show neared its end, I made a beeline for the inside bar to pick up a cocktail for my generous sister, who had bought me far too many drinks for a school night and was due for a returned favor. Waiting by the bar, I listened to the sound-check for the next band, and what I heard stopped me dead in my tracks.

On stage was a guy who looked like a slightly burlier version of Jack White in a suit and bowtie, and a gorgeous, lithe brunette in black with a figure that could stir the loins of the an army full of impotent men. The vocal range they displayed in the sound check was enough for me to wrangle the troops inside, and what I saw once they stepped on stage blew me the f$%k away.

The band was called The Civil Wars, and not a single soul in the joint could tell me anything about them except that they were from Nashville.

The first thing you notice about the duet is the incredibly obvious tension between Joy Williams and John Paul White during their stripped down Appalachian-tinged harmonic duets. While they are apparently both married (and not to each other), the sex vibe between them is so intense it’s almost lurid.

On stage, they’re pulling off intricate, glorious harmonies most musicians, country, indie or otherwise, would not even attempt, but in a playful, effortless and really loose manner. There's power and strength in their voices, and on stage they look as if they're only exercising a fraction of what they're capable of (and this is a good thing). It’s tempting to compare them to Johnny and June or Dylan and Baez, but these guys are talented (and different) enough to warrant their own classification.

The duo played songs from their new album “Barton Hollow,” as well as a cover of “You Are My Sunshine” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” After nearly every number I saw more people looking around mouthing “wow” to each other and asking “who the hell are THESE guys?”

Part real country, part Appalachian folk, part straight-ahead pop and extremely harmony-driven, there aren’t too many folks (or charts) these guys wouldn’t appeal to. A quick scan of the interwebs confirms that they are already picking up steam.

Taylor Swift apparently called them her “favorite duet,” Paste Magazine called them “The Best of What’s Next,” and the band managed to get their hit “Poison and Wine” placed on “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2009.

Their video for "Barton Hollow" (that's pronounced "holler," folks) just hit VH1, they scored a spot on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in January and they just (weirdly) played on “Prairie Home Companion,” where they managed to get things so heated up that Garrison Keillor said “I’m going to go wipe my brow now.”

Whatever buzz they’re getting, we say it’s well deserved. While their LP “Barton Hollow” is solid, we suggest you be on the lookout for a live performance of the Civil Wars near you to get a feel for exactly why we’re so geeked about them.

Listen to The Civil Wars Live on Prairie Home Companion.

Watch The Civil Wars Cover Leonard Cohen's “Dance Me to the End of Love”:

Watch the Video for The Civil Wars' “Poison and Wine”:

Watch The Civil Wars cover Michael Jackson’s “You Are My Sunshine”: