Produced by Buddy Miller at the beloved musician’s home studio earlier this spring, the album’s 11 songs were written solely by Michael, who shares lead vocals with his wife throughout. Miller, on guitars and banjo, is joined by an impressive lineup of musicians including Brady Blade, Adam Chaffins, Jim Hoke, Russ Pahl and Sam Bush, among others. Additionally, country music legend Emmylou Harris lends her distinctive voice to the track “Here Is Where the Loving Is At.”
“I hope people see our hearts on this record,” Michael Trotter Jr. says in a release. “I want people to feel like we care. When you think about artists you don’t think about that, but that’s the way I want the world to feel about The War and Treaty.”
A wounded warrior who served in Iraq, Trotter was pulled from the frontlines to write songs for the fallen. He met his wife, a lifelong artist, while the two were performing at the same festival.