When the nominations for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards were announced in November, The War and Treaty weren’t eagerly waiting to hear their name called — they were just trying to catch a plane.
“We were so used to being overlooked year after year to where we just didn’t pay attention,” Michael Trotter Jr., one half of the soulful husband-wife duo, exclusively told Us Weekly in a recent interview.
While discussing The War and Treaty’s partnership with George Dickel — and the launch of Dickel Bourbon Aged 18 Years — Michael said that he and his wife and bandmate, Tanya Trotter (née Blount), only learned they had netted two nominations when his phone started blowing up. “We were sitting in the airport, and my phone is just going absolutely berserk,” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘What is happening?’ And I looked down and I saw all these congratulations. I opened one of them up, and it’s talking about two Grammy nominations. And I immediately just come to tears.”
Michael said he wasn’t just expressing the joy of being nominated — he was also crying because it was a humbling moment.
“My tears weren’t just tears of joy,” he explained. “It was a mixture of [joy and], ‘I can’t believe that I was that self-centered that I was really just put off by the fact that I didn’t get nominated the year before or the year before that.’ And I had to get put back in check and realize, ‘Listen, it’s not about awards. It’s not about accolades. It’s not about Grammys. It’s literally about being a servant. And this is the response to your servanthood.’”
The War and Treaty Hailey Compton
Since forming in the mid-2010s, The War and Treaty have changed the perception of what country and Americana music could be — and who can make it. The duo released their major label debut album, Lover’s Game, in March. “Blank Page,” a song from the LP, earned a Best Americana Roots Song nomination at the upcoming Grammys, and the duo is also up for Best New Artist. They share the latter category with fellow nominees Jelly Roll, Ice Spice, Gracie Abrams, Fred Again, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan and Victoria Monét.
“Somebody somewhere said, ‘Hey, you know what? War and Treaty did something this year deserving of a certain kind of recognition,’” noted a very grateful Michael. “And to be nominated alongside Jelly Roll, I will say that that’s just another testimony in itself.”
While Michael noted that The War and Treaty and Jelly Roll are “both considered in the country music genre,” neither act “looks like the poster child for the [genre].” That itself, he notes, is a triumph.
“This whole category of best new artists is just filled with artists who have overcoming stories,” he adds. “Ice Spice, Coco Jones, you name them, and they’re there. And Noah. And so I’m very excited about the Grammys.”
Michael and Tanya speak with such warmth and comfort in their voices that their pairing with George Dickel to celebrate the launch of the limited-edition Dickel Bourbon Aged 18 Years is a perfect fit.
The War and Treaty performed at the historic Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in Tennessee as part of the launch, even previewing a new song from their upcoming album. Tanya — who appeared in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and released her solo album, Natural Thing, shortly afterward — described the evening as “wonderful.”
“Cascade Hollow, it reminds me of how I grew up and going to see my grandparents in the Carolinas,” she told Us. “And you get the feel of what it’s all about and the family environment that they have. We all enjoyed tasting [Dickel Bourbon Aged 18 Years] for the first time. It was really, really magical.”
“It also felt like we were coming together to celebrate the birth of something special and something very unique,” added Michael. “And I will say I’ve been a fan of the brand, but this moment and this particular tasting that Tanya and I had before we performed, it got me excited, man. I can see George Dickel Aged 18 Years actually in many different phases of life and being able to celebrate that.”
He added: “Tanya looked absolutely fabulous, as she always does.”
This has been a banner year for The War and Treaty, who won Duo/Group of the Year at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards. They were also nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards, Duo of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, and their song “That’s How Love Is Made” earned them a Duo/Group Video of the Year nomination at the CMT Music Awards.
Amid all that success, The War and Treaty remain centered, grateful and positive. “Life is a balance,” Tanya told Us. “You have to be able to take the good with the bad. And it sounds so simple, but we [as a people] really lean our energy to more bad because we spend too much time on the internet. Or we’re not spending enough time with people who are positive. Or maybe people don’t celebrate every good thing that happens. So, we’ve kind of made it our purpose with every milestone that happens in our life to celebrate.”
She explains that philosophy extends to the partnership with George Dickel. “It was important for us to keep honing in on the fact that this is a celebration,” she told Us. “This is George Dickel 18, it’s limited. Everyone can’t get it, that kind of thing. And that’s a parallel of life because a lot of people aren’t going to get why you’re happy.”
“A lot of people aren’t going to get why you celebrate because they’re so bogged down into the complexities of what life can bring,” Tanya continued. “But life is a balance of celebration and sadness, of life and death, of being born and dying. It’s the constant just trying to find your balance, being happy and being depressed. You can’t always be happy, and you can’t always be depressed.”
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“I will say, in addition, for me, I’ve learned how not to compare misfortunes,” added Michael. “And what I mean by that is you hear a lot of people say, ‘Well, there’s always someone worse off.’ Well, that’s not a means to celebrate. What we can celebrate, though, is our victories. What we can celebrate is the times when we haven’t given up. And what we can do is to remind each other that there are wins. Yeah, there are losses, but there are wins.
Michael concluded by emphasizing the importance of keeping “togetherness” in the forefront. “We have to always be reminded of the thriving spirit of humanity,” he said. “And that’s something that we cannot afford to lose.”