The Civil Wars THE CIVIL WARS

Like any union that carries some measure of professional convenience, the Civil Wars encountered difficulties as they began to mature. Unlike other groups whose history extended to a professional gathering of songwriters and singers, the duo of Joy Williams and John Paul White were blessed with considerable immediate success: their 2011 debut climbed its way into the U.S. Top 10, going gold and winning two Grammys along the way. Any other band would've basked in such success, but the Civil Wars began to splinter, announcing in November of 2012 that they were taking a hiatus, leaving behind this, an eponymous second album (along with a soundtrack collaboration with T-Bone Burnett for the documentary A Place at the Table). The Civil Wars doesn't feel unfinished, but it does contain some loose ends that are even more apparent after the refined execution of Barton Hollow, which was an album that glided along upon its own cool reserve. Williams and White hardly abandon that sense of quiveri