INDIO, Calif. ā About an hour after the War and Treaty burned down Aprilās Stagecoach festival with a scorching rendition of āThe Star-Spangled Banner,ā the married country duoās Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter are cooling down in an air-conditioned trailer as they ponder a question: Who sang the greatest national anthem of all time?
āTo me, it has to be Whitney Houston,ā Tanya says, to which Michael nods in agreement. āThereās a Mt. Rushmore, though,ā he adds. āNo. 2, Chris Stapleton. No. 3 ā this is debatable ā I think Jennifer Hudson.ā He runs a comb through his hair as he considers a fourth. āKelly Clarkson does a really good job. BeyoncĆ© does a great job.ā
No room for Marvin Gaye, who performed a famously sultry interpretation at 1983ās NBA All-Star Game? Michael crinkles up his face.
āOh, thatās the worst version,ā he says.
āWe should not go on the record saying that,ā Tanya advises.
Michael: āIām not afraid. Iāll go on the record.ā
Tanya: āHere we go.ā
Michael: āListen, I donāt want to fā to the national anthem.ā
Tanya: āOh, lord.ā
āI want to think of the service and of war and how me and my battle buddies fought for freedom,ā says Michael, who began writing songs as an Army soldier stationed in Baghdad during the Iraq war. āSo, Marvin Gaye ā I just donāt like it.ā He grins. āBut thatās OK. If Tanya wants to do it to his version, hell, yeah ā letās do it. Now, itās the best version ever.ā
Two decades after Michaelās experience in Iraq, the War and Treaty has carved out a space as one of the most exciting live acts in American roots music, with a catalog of wise and passionate songs about loyalty, faith and romance and a boisterous stage show that evokes memories of Ike and Tina Turner. In February, the Nashville-based couple ā Michael is 42, Tanya, 50 ā were nominated for best new artist at the 66th Grammy Awards (despite having released their fourth studio album, āLoverās Game,ā in 2023).
Zach Bryan recruited the Trotters to appear on his smash self-titled LP from last year, then asked the duo to open for him this month at Crypto.com Arena. And on July 10, theyāll return to Southern California to play SoFi Stadium with no less an institution than the Rolling Stones.
āItās absolute magic, the two of their voices together,ā says country star Nate Smith, whose new EP, āThrough the Smoke,ā features a harmony-drenched collaboration with the War and Treaty. Smith remembers seeing the duo perform āThatās How Love Is Madeā at Novemberās Country Music Assn. Awards and being brought to tears by the intensity of the emotion in their singing. āWeāre talking beyond goosebumps,ā he adds. āI was literally bawling ā like, āWhat is wrong with me right now?āā
Indeed, the Trotters have become reliable showstoppers at Nashvilleās many televised awards events, including the Academy of Country Music Honors (where they paid tribute to Stapleton last year with a sexy-churchy take on his song āColdā) and CMTās recent āSmashing Glassā special (where they got Patti LaBelle fanning herself as they belted LaBelle and Michael McDonaldās classic āOn My Ownā).
The format is an ideal showcase for the War and Treatyās sweaty blend of country, rock, gospel and R&B: To see the Trotters lock eyes and voices is to believe them. But according to the couple, itās also the only available remedy to a vexing problem.
āPeople talk all the time: āTheyāre just awards-show babies,āā Michael says. āYep, youāre right ā we are. Because the reality of the situation is that weāre not getting played on country radio. So weāve got to treat TV like you would radio and try to get on every awards show we can. And when we get on there, weāre gonna try and do the same thing every single time, which is to blow the roof off until people understand that weāre here to stay.ā
The War And Treaty perform at Aprilās Stagecoach festival.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Even in an era defined by streaming, country radio retains much of the genreās hitmaking power. And though the War and Treaty are part of a growing number of Black voices in Nashville ā think also of Kane Brown and Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer ā playlists remain thoroughly dominated by white men, including those visiting from other styles: Compare the immediate No. 1 showing by Post Maloneās āI Had Some Helpā on Billboardās Country Airplay chart to BeyoncĆ©ās peak at No. 33 with āTexas Hold āEm,ā from the much-discussed āCowboy Carterā album that sheās said was inspired by the country industryās cold shoulder. (One of BeyoncĆ©ās collaborators, Shaboozey, may have an exception on his hands with āA Bar Song (Tipsy),ā which is steadily rising at country radio.)
Asked if they feel welcome at a festival like Stagecoach ā other acts on this yearās bill included Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Jelly Roll and Miranda Lambert ā Tanya says, āDefinitely,ā while Michael reflects for a moment. āI donāt think itās enough to feel welcome,ā he says. āThereās something else to feel, which is to feel together. And when you have artists standing onstage yelling about redneck culture, you know theyāre not talking to you. So I think what we have to do as a culture is we have to stop laying out the welcome mat and really start extending the hand. Thereās a difference.ā
As a committed purveyor of songs about love ā not about the pain of its absence but about its promise of spiritual fulfillment ā Michael acknowledges that the War and Treaty is out of step with most modern country music, which he says is ābased on heartbreak and sātalking.ā He laughs. āItās the truth: Morganās main song is āLast Nightāā ā Wallenās chart-topper about a coupleās drunken breakup ā āand then Hardyās out here singing about āI woke up on the wrong side of the truck bed.ā I look at that and Iām like, āIs this where War and Treaty fits? Is this where we show that thereās still a market for art that focuses on love?āā
As he and Tanya chat in their trailer, theyāre preparing their outfits for a second performance on one of Stagecoachās smaller side stages. On the main stage earlier, Tanya wore a red-fringed bodysuit she describes as an homage to one of her āfashion gods,ā Diana Ross; Michael wore matching red-and-black pants and a vest that he says nodded to a couple of heroes of his own, pro wrestlers āMacho Manā Randy Savage and āStone Coldā Steve Austin.
Is Michael a big wrestling guy?
āHeās a fanatic,ā Tanya says.
āAll the way,ā Michael confirms. Then he warns me against delving into the topic if thereās anything else Iād like to leave time to discuss with him and his wife. āTrust me, we need to move on now,ā he says, smiling.
Adds Tanya: āPlease, letās not open this box.ā
The Trotters, whoāve been married since 2011 and have a 13-year-old son, sing and write with the familiarity of longtime partners.
In āThe Best That I Have,ā a simmering slow jam from āLoverās Game,ā Tanya joins a lover on the couch with ice cream and reruns of āThe Golden Girls.ā And onstage, the two communicate with an unspoken intimacy, signaling each other to take a vocal line or to hold back with just a look or a touch on the wrist.
āMe and Tanya, we share time and space in every way,ā Michael says.
Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter have been married since 2011 and share a 13-year-old son.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
The two formed the War and Treaty in 2014 after each had learned to play on their own. āFreaked out,ā as he puts it, by the brutal reality of the war in Iraq, Michael would soothe himself by playing a piano his fellow soldiers had found in the basement of one of Saddam Husseinās palaces; eventually, he started writing songs to memorialize fallen members of his unit. āAnd that brought so much healing and resolution to the troops that they decided that would be my new role,ā he says.
At one point on Stagecoachās main stage, Michael asked how many veterans were in the crowd; not many folks made their presence known ā fewer, certainly, than would have, say, two decades ago. Does he think about that?
āI do, and I know why,ā he says after the performance. āIn the past 20-something years, weāve gone through a strong love-hate relationship with the military. Our leaders have done a poor job in protecting service members, because now Americans look at service members as based on whoās president at the time. We forget that men and women are raising their hand to fight for freedom ā losing their lives and their limbs and their sanity. Thereās no emphasis on their service. Artists donāt give a sā anymore.
āToby Keith was dripping in the red, white and blue,ā he says of the late country star known for his patriotic songs and his USO tours, āand he was very sad to leave that legacy to no one. So me and Tanya, we kind of fill that void.ā
Tanya got an early boost as a singer when she appeared in the 1993 movie āSister Act 2: Back in the Habit,ā which featured a scene in which she and Lauryn Hill sang āHis Eye Is on the Sparrow.ā She went on to release an R&B album the next year and later signed with Sean āDiddyā Combsā Bad Boy label, though a planned LP never materialized. (Asked about the sexual abuse several women have accused Combs of in recent months, Tanya says, āI donāt have any comment, only because I have a gag order. I canāt talk about it legally.ā)
How does singing country music differ from singing R&B? āYou know, I never realized that there was a difference,ā Tanya says. āWhen I would see Patti LaBelle and Dolly Parton together on television, they were both flamboyant, they both had red nails. It wasnāt until I got into the business of music that theyāre like, āThis is this, and this is that.āā
The Trotters have continued to blur those genre lines in a series of singles theyāve released this year, including the lush āStealing a Kiss,ā which calls to mind the psychedelic soul music of the 1970s, and the bluegrass-steeped āLeads Me Home.ā āCalled You By Your Name,ā meanwhile, is a blistering gospel-rock rave-up with blaring New Orleans-style brass.
The couple have tentative plans to release an album early next year, though theyāre booked solid on the road for the rest of 2024, including festival dates and opening gigs for the likes of Bryan, Lyle Lovett and Gary Clark Jr. (with whom theyāll appear Aug. 21 at the Hollywood Bowl).
Michael says he views the job as a support act āwith honor and reverence,ā but he also admits, āI feel drained from it sometimes. Iād be lying if I didnāt say Iām wondering when will it be our turn?ā
He knows that Nashville rewards the kind of sustained hard work put in by Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, both of whom said yes to seemingly every invitation before finally leveling up over the last couple of years. But he also knows how many mediocre songs about trucks and beer are filling the country airwaves instead of tunes by the War and Treaty. To keep motivated, he reminds himself of what music once did for him as a veteran experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
āYou have your moments where youāre fāing tired and you donāt feel like trying to get a crowd to wave their little hands,ā he says. āBut Tanya and I, weāve got a song that somebody might need to hear that will cause them to want to live another day. Because our whole heart is in it, we have no choice. Thatās what keeps me going.ā