The War and Treaty’s music is delightfully difficult to categorize, but what’s easy to hear in it is emotional truth and the baring of souls. A variety of sounds anchored by episodes of disappointment, joy and everything in between makes the husband-and-wife team’s fifth album, “The Story of Michael and Tanya,” an artistic triumph.
Released in June, the record by Tanya and Michael Trotter has some stone-country songs, others clearly influenced by classic soul. Gospel and rock are prominent, too. The album’s title is to be interpreted not as the history of the couple’s relationship, but as their individual — and loved ones’ — paths that ultimately intertwine.
“It’s a sum of all of the stories we come from, more so than it is our story,” said Tanya Trotter, on a late-September call from the Trotters’ home base of Nashville. The pair drew on elements of their own experiences and the hardships members of their families endured to create these songs.
The electric piano-driven, gospel-influenced “Holy Ghost Fire” is particularly personal for Tanya, noting that prior to her marriage to Michael she was, “in a relationship that was very traumatizing and abusive, and so that song came from a deep place for me.” Describing its spiritual feeling, she said, “We did want people to feel like they were going to church — not the building the church but coming to maybe us as the church.”
The Trotters wrote several album tracks together, including the triumphant closer, “High Heels,” while Michael wrote some on his own. “Michael is a prolific songwriter,” Tanya said. “He’s probably one of the first songwriters I’ve ever worked with… that can feel what a woman would say and what a man would say, and make it seem like they’re writing it from two separate perspectives,” adding with a laugh that she suspects he writes down some of her contributions to conversations and mines them later for songs. “Don’t Say Goodbye,” a slice of ‘70s-sounding soul, is an album highlight created mostly by Michael.
Befitting the War and Treaty’s approach of emphasizing feeling and what sounds right over what industry category it will fit into, a diverse set of guests contributed to the record. Actor Whoopi Goldberg provided spoken word biographical sections on the opener, “Let’s Get Litty,” while R&B star Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds co-wrote and co-produced the stellar track, “You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore.” Folk/roots artist Valerie June and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Wynonna Judd each sang a verse on breakup anthem “Reclaim All of Your Time.”
Named in the immediate aftermath of an argument that touched on Michael Trotter’s experience serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq, the War and Treaty started performing in 2014. Tanya was a featured singer in the 1993 film, “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” before recording solo R&B albums and then starting a career in musical theater. Always fond of singing, Michael learned to play the piano in the basement of one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. After experimenting with several names, the two first recorded under their current name on the 2017 EP, “Down to the River.”
Hot on the heels of “The Story of Michael and Tanya” is the “Country Baptism” EP, which arrived in September and feeds into the same songwriting honesty that informs that album. The title track is a case in point.
“I told Michael, with ‘Country Baptism,’ I thought it was time for him to really get into the nitty gritty of some of the things he felt coming home from the war,” said Tanya. The album and its follow-up EP are the band’s first two releases on Atlantic Outpost, the label’s foray into Americana and country music launched last summer.
The songs on “The Story of Michael and Tanya” fit so well together that they seem destined to be performed live as a complete set. The Trotters will approximate that on upcoming dates, including a show at the Tower Theatre in Bend on Oct. 20.
“We’re going to do a lot of the album. You know you’re always tempted when you’re touring to do songs that your fans want to hear,” Tanya said. “You want to do the three or four songs that they’re listening to on Spotify. There’s always the challenge of that, but the plan is to play as much of the record as we can.”
The War and Treaty will spend all of October and November on the road, headlining a tour that takes in big cities and sparsely populated states alike.
“For me, the reach is being able to let everybody know and be in real time and say, ‘thank you,’ and appreciate them for taking the time to come and see us,” said Tanya. “It’s a great thing to be able to go to LA… but it’s also just as great of a thing to be able to go to Fisher, Washington.”
The War and Treaty has earned two Grammy Award nominations plus nominations from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association Awards, while also winning multiple Americana Music Awards. Tribute nights and awards shows have turned into something of a specialty for the pair, as they’ve made splashes at everything from this year’s BET Awards to 2024’s Kennedy Center Honors.
Earlier that year, they led all participants in a version of “Georgia On My Mind” at Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday concert in Atlanta. A film about their lives is in development, with Tanya noting that the script is done and they’re “just waiting for the Hollywood thing to happen now, which is all of the pieces coming together.”
They’re working on a book in parallel. “I have pushed Michael because he has this record he’s been working on, and it’s about his stories in the military,” she said. “I’m hoping he will go and record this.” In addition to that potential solo effort, the pair is already thinking about another group recording.
The War & Treaty
Tue., Oct. 20, 7:30pm
Tower Theatre
835 NW Wall St., Bend
$52-$72 (plus $8 Historic Preservation fee)
towertheatre.org
This article appears in the Source October 15, 2026.
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