INDIO, California — About an hour after War and Treaty set April's Stagecoach festival on fire with a searing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, the married country duo, are cooling off in an air-conditioned room. trailer as they ponder a question: Who sang the best national anthem of all time?
“For me, it has to be Whitney Houston,” Tanya says, to which Michael nods. “There is a Mount Rushmore, though,” he adds. “No. 2, Chris Stapleton. No. 3 – this is debatable – I think Jennifer Hudson.” She runs a comb through her hair as she considers a fourth. “Kelly Clarkson does a really good job. Beyoncé does a great job.”
No room for Marvin Gaye, who gave a famously sultry performance at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game? Michael grimaces.
“Oh, that’s the worst version,” he says.
“We shouldn’t say that officially,” Tanya advises.
Michael: “I'm not afraid. I will say it publicly.”
Tanya: “Here we go.”
Michael: “Listen, I don't want to fuck up the national anthem.”
Tanya: “Oh, sir.”
“I want to think about service and war and how my battle buddies and I fought for freedom,” says Michael, who began writing songs as an Army soldier stationed in Baghdad during the Iraq War. “So Marvin Gaye, I just don’t like him.” He smiles. “But that’s OK. If Tanya wants to do it in her version, hell yeah, let’s do it. Now it’s the best version ever created.”
Two decades after Michael's experience in Iraq, War and Treaty has carved out a space for itself 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 couple (Michael is 42 and Tanya is 50) was nominated for best new artist at the 66th Grammy Awards (despite having released their fourth studio album, “Lover's Game,” in 2023 ).
Zach Bryan recruited the Trotters to appear on his self-titled smash LP last year, then asked the duo to open for him this month at Crypto.com Arena. And on July 10, they’ll be returning to Southern California to play SoFi Stadium with none other than an institution than the Rolling Stones.
“It's absolute magic, the two voices together,” says country star Nate Smith, whose new EP, “Through the Smoke,” features a harmony-filled collaboration with War and Treaty. Smith remembers seeing the duo perform “That's How Love Is Made” at the Country Music Association in November. Awards and tears for the intensity of the emotion in his singing. “We're talking beyond goosebumps,” he adds. “I was literally crying, like, 'What's wrong with me right now?'”
In fact, the Trotters have become reliable fixtures at Nashville’s numerous televised awards events, including the Academy of Country Music Honors (where they paid tribute to Stapleton last year with a sexy, churchy version of his song “Cold”) and CMT’s recent “Smashing Glass” special (where Patti LaBelle fanned herself while singing the LaBelle and Michael McDonald classic “On My Own”).
The format is an ideal showcase for War and Treaty's sweaty mix of country, rock, gospel and R&B: to see the Trotters look at each other and talk is to believe them. But according to the pair, it's also the only available remedy for a vexing problem.
“People talk all the time, ‘They’re just award show babies,’” Michael says. “Yeah, you’re right, we are. Because the reality of the situation is that we don’t get played on country radio. So we have to treat television like we would treat radio and try to get on every award show we can. And when we get there, we’re going to try to do the same thing every time, which is blow the roof off until people understand that we’re here to stay.”
The War And Treatise is being performed at Stagecoach Festival in April.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Even in an era defined by streaming, country radio retains much of the genre's hit-making power. And while The War and Treaty are part of a growing number of black voices in Nashville (think Kane Brown, Mickey Guyton, and Brittney Spencer, too), playlists remain dominated by white men, including those who visit other styles: compare the immediate No. 1 spot for Post Malone's “I Had Some Help” on Billboard's Country Airplay chart with Beyoncé peaking at No. 33 with “Texas Hold 'Em,” from the much-discussed album “Cowboy Carter,” which according to she was inspired by the indifference of the country industry. (One of Beyoncé's collaborators, Shaboozey, may have an exception on her hands with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which is climbing steadily at country radio.)
When asked if they feel welcome at a festival like Stagecoach (this year also featured Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Jelly Roll and Miranda Lambert), Tanya replies, “Definitely,” as Michael reflects for a moment. “I don't think it's enough to feel welcome,” he says. “There is something more to feel, which is to feel together. And when you have artists standing on stage yelling about redneck culture, you know they're not talking to you. So I think what we need to do as a culture is stop rolling out the welcome mat and really start reaching out. There is a difference”.
As a committed purveyor of songs about love (not about the pain of its absence, but about its promise of spiritual fulfillment), Michael acknowledges that War and Treaty is out of step with most modern country music, which he says is “based on heartbreak and s–t.” He laughs. “It’s the truth: Morgan’s signature song is ‘Last Night’” (Wallen’s hit about a drunken couple’s breakup) “and then Hardy’s here singing about ‘I woke up on the wrong side of the truck bed. ’ I look at that and think, ‘Is this where War and Treaty fit in? Is this where we prove there’s still a market for art that centers on love? ’”
As he and Tanya chat in their trailer, they’re preparing their outfits for a second performance on one of Stagecoach’s smaller secondary stages. Earlier on the main stage, Tanya wore a red-fringed jumpsuit she describes as an homage to one of her “fashion gods,” Diana Ross; Michael wore matching red-and-black pants and a vest that he says gave a nod to a couple of his own heroes, pro wrestlers “Macho Man” Randy Savage and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Is Michael a great fighter?
“He's a fanatic,” Tanya says.
“Until the end,” Michael confirms. Then he warns me not to go into the subject further if there is something else I would like to leave time to discuss with him and his wife. “Believe me, we have to move on now,” he says smiling.
Tanya adds, “Please don't open this box.”
The Trotters, who have been married since 2011 and have a 13-year-old son, sing and write with the familiarity of two longtime partners.
On “The Best That I Have,” a slow-burning “Lover’s Game” song, Tanya joins a lover on the couch over ice cream and reruns of “The Golden Girls.” And onstage, the two communicate with unspoken intimacy, signaling each other to take a vocal line or hold back with just a glance or a touch of the wrist.
“Tanya and I share time and space in every way,” says Michael.
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 War and Treaty in 2014, after each taught themselves to play. “Frightened,” as he puts it, by the brutal reality of the war in Iraq, Michael calmed himself by playing a piano that his fellow soldiers had found in the basement of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces; Over time, he began writing songs to commemorate the fallen members of his unit. “And that brought so much healing and resolve to the troops that they decided that would be my new role,” he says.
At one point on the main stage at Stagecoach, Michael asked how many veterans there were in the crowd; not many people made their presence known – fewer, certainly, than would have done, say, two decades ago. Do you think about that?
“Yes, and I know why,” he says after the performance. “Over the last twenty-something years, we’ve gone through a strong love-hate relationship with the military. Our leaders have done a poor job of protecting service members, because now Americans view service members based on who the president is at the time. We forget that men and women are raising their hands to fight for freedom, losing their lives, their limbs, and their sanity. There’s no emphasis on their service. The artists don’t give anything anymore.”
“Toby Keith was dressed in red, white and blue,” she says of the country star, known for his patriotic songs and tours with the USO, “and he was very sad that he wasn’t going to leave that legacy for anybody. So Tanya and I filled that void.”
Tanya received an early boost as a singer when she appeared in the 1993 film “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” which featured a scene in which she and Lauryn Hill sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” She then released an R&B album the following year and then signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs' Bad Boy label, although a planned LP never materialized. (When asked about the sexual abuse that several women have accused Combs of in recent months, Tanya says, “I have no comment, only because I have a gag order. I can't legally talk about it.”)
How is singing country music different from singing R&B? “I never realized there was a difference,” Tanya says. “When I saw Patti LaBelle and Dolly Parton together on TV, they were both flamboyant, they both had red nails. It wasn’t until I got into the music business that they were like, ‘This is this, and this is that.’”
The Trotters have continued to blur those genre lines in a series of singles they released this year, including the lush “Stealing a Kiss,” which recalls the psychedelic soul music of the 1970s, and the bluegrass-infused “Leads Me.” . Home.” Meanwhile, “Called You By Your Name” is a gospel rock rave with blaring New Orleans-style brass.
The pair have tentative plans to release an album early next year, though they have tour bookings for the rest of 2024, including festival dates and opening gigs for artists including Bryan, Lyle Lovett and Gary Clark Jr. (with whom they will appear on August 21 at the Hollywood Bowl).
Michael says he sees work as an act of support “with honor and reverence,” but also admits, “Sometimes I feel exhausted. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm wondering when will it be our turn?
He knows that Nashville rewards the kind of hard, sustained work put in by Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, who said yes to seemingly every invitation before finally leveling up in recent years. But he also knows how many mediocre songs about trucks and beer are filling the country’s airwaves instead of tunes from the War and the Treaty. To stay motivated, he remembers what music did for him when he was a veteran suffering from PTSD.
“There are times when you're really fucking tired and you don't feel like trying to get the crowd to wave their little hands,” he says. “But Tanya and I have a song that someone might need to hear that will make them want to live another day. Because our whole heart is in it, we have no choice. “That’s what keeps me going.”
