''The Civil Wars'' is the second and final album by American alternative folk band

the Civil Wars The Civil Wars were an American musical duo composed of Joy Williams (singer), Joy Williams and John Paul White. Formed in 2008, The Civil Wars won four Grammy Awards prior to their 2014 breakup. History 2008–2010 Both Williams and White h ...

. The album was released on August 6, 2013, by Sensibility Music/

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. ''The Civil Wars'' received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

, and it sold more than 116,000 copies, making it debut at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The song "From This Valley" won them their fourth Grammy, the second one in the category

Best Country Duo/Group Performance The Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. It was first awarded in 2012, after a major overhaul of Gramm ...

Promotion

"The One That Got Away" and "From This Valley" were released as singles in June 2013. The third single from the album, " Dust to Dust", was released to

Hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

radio in the United States on October 7, 2013.

Reception

Critical reception

''The Civil Wars'' received positive reviews from critics. According to Metacritic, the album has scored 71 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews, the same score ''

Barton Hollow ''Barton Hollow'' is the first full-length studio album from the Civil Wars. Produced by Charlie Peacock, it was released on February 1, 2011. It peaked at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Digital Albums chart, No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' 2 ...

'', the duo's previous album, received.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart with sales of 116,000 copies.

Track listing

Personnel

The Civil Wars * Joy Williams – vocals *

John Paul White John Paul White (born August 4, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter, and was a member of the Grammy Award-winning duo The Civil Wars. He restarted his solo career with his 2016 release, ''Beulah''. Early life White was born in Muscle Shoals ...

– electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals Technical personnel *

Charlie Peacock Charles William Ashworth (born August 10, 1956), known professionally as Charlie Peacock, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, and author. His albums include ''Love Press Ex-Curio'', ''Arc of the Circle'' and ''No Man's L ...

– production, engineering, arrangements *

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popula ...

– production ("I Had Me a Girl") *

Tom Elmhirst Tom Elmhirst (born 8 June 1971) is a British mix engineer. He has worked with artists including Adele, Beck, David Bowie, Cage the Elephant, Lady Gaga, Residente, and Amy Winehouse, among many others. Elmhirst has received numerous accolades a ...

– mixing * Ben Baptie –

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

, mixing assistant * Joe Visciano – mixing assistant Additional musicians *

– piano,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

, keyboards, bass, keyboard bass, drums,

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, also referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Its high-quality samples, flexibility and affordability made the LinnDrum popular; it sold far mo ...

* Sam Ashworth – tambourine, tom-tom, engineer *

Barry Bales Barry Turner Bales (born August 23, 1969 in Kingsport, Tennessee, United States) is an American musician best known as the long time bass player and harmony vocalist for Alison Krauss and Union Station. He has been in the band for around 25 years. ...

– double bass *

Jerry Douglas Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. Career In addition to his fourteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums. As a sideman, he has ...

–

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying B ...

– lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar * Mark Hill – bass * Andy Leftwitch – fiddle, mandolin * Jerry McPherson – electric guitar * Gabe Scott –

hammer dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

* Aaron Sterling – cymbals, drums, bass drum * Jeff Taylor – accordion,

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

pump organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

, piano

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Civil Wars, The The Civil Wars albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Charlie Peacock 2013 albums Albums produced by Rick Rubin