The War and Treaty Live
Crecsent Ballroom
Phoenix, Arizona
March 21, 2023
by Mary Andrews
Welcome to the Church of War and Treaty.The band is lead by the husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount Trotter. They took their powerful vocals across the universe in a sea of harmony for all of us to revel with an all too short evening of gut-wrenching songs. War and Treaty released a new album of original tunes on March 10, 2023, Lover’s Game. The majority of the show drew songs from the new album.
War and Treaty has won the 2019 Americana Music Honors & Awards as Emerging Artist of the Year and in 2022 as the Duo/Group of the Year. This year’s CMT Music Awards has nominated them for Duo/Group Video of the Year for “That’s How Love is Made.”
This was a ‘feel good’ show from the beginning to the end. Most of the narrative came from Michael throughout the set. The couple seem to be very down to earth. Tanya took her mic off the stand to be close to her husband and both spent much time intensely gazing into each other’s eyes and singing the songs to one another. The feeling was intimate but at the same time, shared with everyone in the room. Their music has been described to be about conflict and redemption. Tonight it seemed to be more like redemption.
Tanya’s voice is as strong as any singer heard in this lifetime. There are shades of Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Bettye LaVette in her delivery. Her vocals are commanding and soothing concurrently. Her performance was full of high energy and infectious joy.
Michael took time out to give heartfelt remarks about two important people in their lives, as he spoke, “I want to take a moment to acknowledge a few very special people who are no longer with us. One guy came into our lives very early in our career. He’s a gentleman by the name of Peter Cooper. Peter worked at the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was the first person to give us a shot on that stage by the late great Dottie West and recently last year we inducted Ray Charles into the Hall of Fame. And all of that was because of Peter Cooper.
Another (person) that came and touched our lives was a gentleman who I think touched everybody’s life in this room. A little man, he took the whole world and he put us all in his little hands and he told us it was going to be okay. He sang hymns and because of his lifestyle a lot of those hymns that he sang were forbidden for people like him to sing but he sang them for us. His name was Mr. Leslie Jordan. We lost both gentlemen, we lost so suddenly. We still feel them in our hearts even though we can’t feel them with our hands. We want to acknowledge them with a song on our album, also for friend named Gracie, the song is called “Up Yonder.” The song was performed with heartfelt intensity.
There amazing band was lead by musical director and guitarist, Max Brown, bassist, Tom Davis, organist-Kiran Gupta, and drummer, Chris Powell.
The crowd soaked in the energy of their positivity and their magnetic charisma. Once the show was over, fans were clapping and screaming for an encore. Of course, The War and Treaty obliged.
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