The War and Treaty feel right at home in the UK | Music | Entertainment

Across two days at the prestigious and jaw-dropping Royal Albert Hall, Highways Festival 2024 cemented London as The Place To Be for British country music fans.

While there were (almost) countless artists and bands on the stages along the way… none of them compared to The War and Treaty.

The country gospel duo, comprised of married couple Tanya Blount and Michael Trotter Jr, hit the headline stage of Highways Festival on Saturday night with soaring voices, a cappella tones, and showmanship that pointed out they were not just another pair of singer-songwriters.

And, although they recently accepted a Groundbreaker Award and a nomination for an Academy of Country Music Award, they still couldn’t shake their nerves before their performance.

That isn’t unusual, though. Speaking ahead of their set backstage at The Royal Albert Hall, Tanya and Michael told Express.co.uk they are “always nervous” before performing.

Tanya said: “This is a venue that I remember growing up in. I studied classical music, all right? So I thought I would come here doing classical music. But it’s fantastic to be able to be here with Michael, my husband, and bringing our country gospel sound here to this beautiful venue. Very nervous. Yeah, super nervous about that.”

They needn’t have been; their performance was nothing short of immaculate – and the 5,000+ audience members proved it on the night. Once Michael and Tanya’s silky tones drifted into the night, the entirety of The Royal Albert Hall got on its feet. A standing ovation for a first-timer at the festival – if that isn’t indicative of pure talent, I’m not quite sure what is.

The band themselves felt the UK had a part to play in it, though. “Even before, you know, Beyoncé came out [with Cowboy Carter],” Tanya said. “I remember walking through parts of England three years ago when we were over here, and you can hear country music in the stores. I was like, something has happened over here… I don’t know what it is, but it’s country music. And I think it’s also because of the stories … This is probably the only music left where you’re really listening for the story and listening for the uniqueness of how the lyrics are put together – and the creativity of it.”

Michael disagreed, however. “We walked through those same stores,” he said. “We did hear country music, but we didn’t hear country music artists that look like us. Yeah, I think there’s a massive difference because that’s not global. That’s not global representation, right? It’s just like the hip-hop world. Hip Hop wasn’t a global representation until you had certain hip-hop artists that kind of peeked in that didn’t look like me.”

With that in mind, Tanya and Michael agreed they felt a “responsibility” to represent Black people and Black culture in country music – something that isn’t happening as much as it should be right now. “We’ve got to open doors for the next generation,” Michael said. “But that’s not the responsibility. I believe the responsibility is to tell the story. Tell your story. Tell what got you here. Talk about your highs, talk about your mids and talk about your lows. And somewhere in you talking and explaining the journey, somebody’s going to listen and hear that and find themselves.”

It’s a lot of pressure to put on themselves, but at least they have each other along the way. As a married couple, they no doubt have their best interests at heart along every step of the way. But… surely things get a little difficult from time to time?

“I’ve been married twice, okay?” Michael confidently announced. “And marriage… Marriage is hard – until you get married to someone who has had it just as hard as you. And, really, you don’t want to do the rest of your life hard.” He went on to add: “I’m not a grudge person. So I lay down with the intention of oh, she’s still beautiful. She’s still brilliant. She’s still smart. We have an argument – whatever. We have a little disagreement – whatever. I’ve learned to allow Tanya to be Tanya.”

Tanya agreed: “You both can’t be insane at the same time. Somebody has to be saying in the middle of a heated moment, just shut your mouth.

“My grandmother told me this – they were married for 73 years – I was like: How did y’all stay together? Because they’ve gone through their own stuff … My grandma said to me: Just be kind. That’s it. She was like, it sounds so easy. But she was like, just be kind.”

Listen to The War and Treaty on Amazon Music Unlimited now.