Listen To Americana Award-Winning The War & Treaty’s ‘That’s How Love Is Made’

The War & Treaty have marked their triumph at the 21st Annual Americana Honors & Awards, at which they were named Duo/Group of the Year, with the release of the new single “That’s How Love Is Made.” It follows their signing to Mercury Nashville in the spring.

The husband and wife duo of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter co-wrote the track with Dave Barnes, and the Mercury release is produced by revered producer Dave Cobb. It’s the first taste of an upcoming album, also produced by Cobb.

“I can’t believe the day has come and we finally get to let the world in on the secret that is, ‘That’s How Love Is Made’ and we hope folks connect to it as much as we have,” says Michael. “My prayer is that so much love is created through this song that eventually hate is drowned out. Let love be as creative as it wants in our friendships, in our business partnerships, in our neighborhood, and never put the chains on her…for she is meant to be free.”

Adds Tanya: “My palms are sweaty, my knees are shaking and I’m going crazy all because of the love we put into creating this song. Now that it’s being released, I’ve moved from tongue clamping to nail biting. Needless to say, I’m excited.” The song arrives with a video filmed in downtown Nashville at Justin Timberlake’s Twelve Thirty Club.

Reviewing the soul-infused song for musicrow.com, longtime country music writer and historian Robert K. Oermann writes: “This Nashville couple is as good as it gets. There are no finer singers, nor more emotional interpreters in our world.

“Their soul-ripping voices can make the angels in Heaven weep for joy. This smoldering, electrifying outing stopped the show at the AMA Awards on Wednesday [September 14]. Its single/video is a stunning, ecstatic, breath-taking experience. This is the sound of Pure Love that shatters and defies every musical category.”

Michael Trotter Jr. served in the US Army from 2003-07, winning repeated repetition including an Iraq Service Medal. The duo formed in 2014 in Albion, Michigan and adopted their current name three years later. Their debut album Healing Tide, described by Rolling Stone as “joyfully relentless title track, reminiscent of classic Ike and Tina Turner rock-infused soul,” came out in 2018.

That led to their first Americana Award nomination as Emerging Artist of the Year, and was followed by the Rounder Records release Hearts Town in 2020. That, in turn, prompted their first Duo/Group of the Year nomination at those awards, before this year’s victory in the same category.

The War & Treaty play tonight (20) at the Janet & Ray Scherr Forum Theater in Thousand Oaks, CA, and their Hearts On Fire tour then visits The Independent in San Francisco tomorrow, with further dates through October (including one at Dollywood in Tennessee) and into November.

Buy or stream The War & Treaty’s “That’s How Love Is Made.”