Barton Hollow

Why it matters

Two voices twisting so tightly around each other that you lose track of who's singing which line — that's the trick The Civil Wars built an entire record on in 2011.

"Poison & Wine" makes the case in miniature: Joy Williams and John Paul White trade a chorus that admits "I don't love you, but I always will," harmony doing the work of a marriage falling apart and holding together at once. The arrangements stay deliberately spare — an acoustic guitar, a little piano, the space between two people — so the pair have nowhere to hide and never seem to want to. Then the title track drops that restraint entirely, stomping into blues-rock menace about a man fleeing a killing. The distance between that snarl and the whispered ballads is the album's whole argument: intimacy and violence sung in the same close harmony.

Listen

Tracklist

1. 0120 Years3:02
2. 02I've Got This Friend3:24
3. 03C’est La Mort2:30
4. 04To Whom It May Concern3:31
5. 05Poison & Wine3:39
6. 06My Father’s Father3:20
7. 07Barton Hollow3:26
8. 08The Violet Hour3:25
9. 09Girl with the Red Balloon3:50
10. 10Falling3:58
11. 11Forget Me Not2:57
12. 12Birds of a Feather3:09
13. 13I Want You Back (Bonus)3:15
14. 14Dance Me to the End of Love (Bonus)3:05