Michael and Tanya Trotter, known as The War and Treaty, will kick off today’s three-act final day of the 2024 Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. They will be followed by The Black Crowes and Dierks Bentley.
There are 88 keys on a piano. Fifty-two are white. Thirty-six are black.
The piano was invented in Padua, Italy, in the 1700s. It was initially called the gravicembalo col piano e forte, or “harpsichord that plays soft and loud.” The name referred to the instrument’s ability to change its volume according to the pressure on the keys, which changed the emotional resonance of the instrument completely.
Pianos are instruments that allow for flexible switching between chords that are ideal for creating harmony, which is why so many writers compose on the piano.
According to Michael Trotter, who performs today at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience with his wife Tanya as The War and Treaty, the piano symbolizes another kind of harmony. Their show begins at 3 p.m. in Snowmass Town Park.
“The white keys are considered the major keys, the black keys are considered the minor keys,” Michael Trotter said in an interview with The Aspen Daily News. “You can play any negro spiritual in the world on just the black keys and not ever touch the white keys.
“But if you put them together, you can make the most immaculate compositions. Beethoven, Mozart, all of the great composers, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington — they have mastered the art of making sure that the majority and the minority keys coexist together in a way that is harmonious. That’s the piano and that’s the world.”
In Saddam’s palace
During World War II, Steinway & Sons parachuted 2,500 pianos, known as “victory verticals,” to American soldiers with the idea they would lift spirits during the war.
Sixty years later, Trotter himself would encounter a piano during a war. He was a member of the U.S. Army 16th Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, the troupe that took over one of Sadaam Hussein’s most lavish palaces in Iraq in 2003.
Husband and wife Michael and Tanya Trotter, known as The War and Treaty, perform live at an unspecified show. They blend blues, gospel, soul, bluegrass and country into their sound.
“It was the palace that housed the lions,” Michael recalled. “There was a pride of lions in a gate in a cage where Uday and Qusay would feed these lions human Iraqis. That’s what we took over.”
Most of the palace was bombed out and covered with soot. In the basement of the palace there was a pristine piano in what looked like a chapel.
“I joined the army to serve my country but I was terrified to be there,” Michael said. “I was visibly afraid. I’d never heard a bomb before in my life, and the bombs, explosions and the rockets were driving me nuts.”
The captain in his unit, Robert Scheetz, had read in Michael’s file that he was a singer. He led Michael to the piano and instructed him to play it when he was off-duty to ease his anxiety.
“I didn’t know how to play,” Michael said, “but I know how to hear. The first song I taught myself on that piano was ‘Lean on Me’ by Bill Withers.”
Sheetz was killed in combat in 2005 when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. and the first song Trotter ever wrote was a memorial to him.
“I sang the song at his memorial in Iraq,” Michael said. ”It brought a lot of healing and resolution, and my unit decided that that would be the thing that belongs strictly to me, to write songs about soldiers who were killed in combat. That’s when I got serious about songwriting because I saw I could bring healing to those who were grieving.”
Meeting and marrying Tanya
He was discharged from the army in 2007 and he continued pursuing music, mostly by busking and performing wherever he could get a gig. But he was suffering from PTSD and depression.
“I was struggling trying to get my footing,” Michael said. “I knew how to be a soldier, but I didn’t know how to be anything else. I didn’t even know when to laugh and when to cry, because I was so trained in war.”
He met Tanya Blount when he was performing at a music festival Blount had organized in Baltimore. She was giving out free backpacks to disadvantaged youth.
Michael and Tanya Trotter of The War and Treaty are shown. Tanya helped Michael get help for his PTSD and depression that resulted from military service in Iraq.
Tanya was moved by Michael’s songs so she approached him and asked if he collaborated with other artists as she was a singer.
Michael was overcome with insecurity and he threw her number away. She later called him about coming into the studio to record on a project her brother was doing. The brother could not make the session, so Michael laid his vocals on the track. “A friend said to me, ‘listen to how well your voices blend together,’” Tanya recalled.
The two were inseparable after the session, but Michael was still haunted by his demons. And after he had a panic attack at a fireworks gathering, Tanya approached him and encouraged him to get help. Trotter began extensive therapy to address his depression, PTSD and anxiety, and songs began to flow out of him.
The couple was married in 2011. In 2013, Tanya and Michael decided to go for it as a music act. For three years, the couple were on what Tanya described as a “coffee and tea” tour, mostly playing coffee shops.
In 2016, they recorded an EP in Michigan called “Love Affair,” a mix of blues, gospel, soul, bluegrass, and country. They released it under the name Trotter & Blount.
They changed their name to “The War and Treaty” with the idea of something beautiful coming out of something painful — “the natural flow of life,” Michael said.
The legendary producer Don Was discovered the band and was slated to produce an album with them in 2018. When he had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts, Buddy Miller stepped in and produced their debut, “Healing Tide.” Miller is considered a legend in country and Americana music, having played and recorded with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Levon Helm, Alison Krauss and more.
One day, Miller came to Michael and Tanya and said, “I have a friend whose favorite thing to do is watch The War and Treaty videos.” That friend was Emmylou Harris. The Trotters and Harris became friends. She brought homemade brownies into the studio for Michael’s birthday and they recorded the track “Here is Where the Loving is at.”
“Emmy is a dear friend, a mentor, someone who Ty and I have great respect for,” Michael said.
“Healing Tide” was a critical success and reached No. 11 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart. The War and Treaty won an Americana Music Association award for Best Emerging Artist of the Year in 2019.
The band straddles several genres. In 2020, The War and Treaty was named Artist of the Year in 2020 by The Folk Alliance International. Country music has embraced the band as they were nominated for Vocal Duo of The Year by both the CMT Music Awards and the Country Music Association in 2023.
Jason Isbell appeared on their 2020 album “Hearts Town” but the biggest break for The War and Treaty occurred when Zach Bryan saw The War and Treaty at a 2022 music awards show.
“Zach was in the audience with his dad,” Michael said. “After we performed, Zach came up to us backstage and he was so excited and his energy was just incredible and he was like,’I don’t know what just happened. I have chills up and down my arms.’ And he said, ‘We gotta do something together.’ So we exchanged numbers.”
Three days later, Bryan sent a rough version of a song called “Hey Driver” to the Trotters who worked on it with him. “Michael and I put some harmonies on a voice memo, and we sent it back to Zach,” Tanya said. “A week later we were in Philadelphia recording the song.”
Another piano story
This is where another piano comes into play in a major way in the story of The War and Treaty.
Bryan didn’t know Michael played the piano because he’s very shy about it. They were in the studio and Michael went to the restroom and Tanya told Bryan how good he was on piano. When Michael came back from the restroom, Bryan asked Michael to sit down and play piano on the track.
Tanya picks up the story: “So they start working out the chords together and they got halfway through the chorus and Zach said, ‘We’re gonna cut it right now’ because Zach likes spontaneity. So he went into the booth, and Michael didn’t really want to do it, but it was happening fast, so Michael said, ‘I’m ready when you are,’ and Zach said, ‘This is your song Mike, let’s do it.’
“And so Michael starts laughing, and we just go right into the song, and that’s what you hear on the record.”
Indeed, over 270 million people have heard that impromptu intro on “Hey Driver” (released on Bryan’s self-titled 2023 juggernaut album that propelled Bryan to selling out two shows at Mile High Stadium in minutes earlier this summer).
The War and Treaty have toured with Bryan and have some dates coming up in the future.
“It’s just been phenomenal to see the success we’ve had because of ‘Hey Driver,’” Tanya said. “Our live shows are sold out in certain cities like New York and D.C., so the song has really really helped us in a lot of ways, and we’re grateful.”
Michael and Tanya Trotter, who kick off today’s JAS Labor Day Experience, are pictured. Trotter learned how to play on Saddam Hussein’s piano and the first songs he ever wrote related to the fallen soldiers in the war with Iraq.
‘Anger and disrespect’
While “Hey Driver” has been a career changer and a high watermark for The War and Treaty, some things seemingly never change and sometimes the black keys on the piano and the white keys fall out of sync.
On June 29, The War and Treaty played a festival in Austin called the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival. The festival was predominantly made up of country and Americana acts. Out of the 10 bands, they were the only black artists on the bill.
When they walked into their dressing room at the Circuit of the Americas Raceway, they were greeted by a cotton plant on an end table which Michael and Tanya viewed as a racist overture.
“Anger is what I felt. Disrespect is what I felt,” Michael told the Hollywood Reporter. “Sadness is what I felt. Sadness not just because of what that plant represents to people that look like me but sadness for myself because I am a son of this country. I served this country honorably in the United States Army.”
Tanya echoed Michael’s statement, saying,“My grandfather actually bought the plantation that he picked cotton on in New Bern, North Carolina. My family actually still lives there. It just shouldn’t happen. Beyond it just being about racism, it’s broader now. It’s now a safety issue because we have to feel safe coming to these festivals.”
C3 Productions out of Austin, producers of the festival, responded to the accusations by The War and Treaty with the following statement: “We are disheartened that the artists were ever uncomfortable at last weekend’s event. There was no purposeful harm intended, and we sincerely apologize. Their concern was met with immediate action, including a heartfelt in-person apology, removal of the decor and a personal conversation with the artists by event organizers to assure them this was an honest mistake.”
The Trotters have since engaged with C3 Productions to ensure such an incident will never happen again.
“We spoke about putting certain things in place so things like this won’t happen again to anyone, not just us, but to other artists that are coming into environments that aren’t favorable. The most important thing is to be heard and to be seen and to be understood, and I think we came to a great resolution with it, and we were happy with the end result,” Michael said.
‘In the name of love’
Michael and Tanya War may have an opportunity to punctuate their summer with a moment of racial harmony this weekend. In 2021, Dierks Bentley and The War and Treaty teamed up at the CMA awards and performed “Pride — In the Name of Love,” a song about the legacy of Martin Luther King.
“We love Dierks,” Tanya said. “We met when we did the tribute to Dottie West in 2018. We quickly became friends and checked on each other in the pandemic, just making sure each other was OK. And he asked us to do ‘Pride’ at the Academy of Country Music Awards.”
The stunning performance in which both Michael and Tanya solo can be seen on YouTube. Might audiences see a collaboration between the two acts Sunday?
Tanya said, “It’s always an honor to play with Dierks.”
And we’ll do anything in the name of love,” Michael laughed.
Tanya and Michael Trotter of The War and Treaty. When asked what she hopes to convey to an audience at a show, Tanya said, “Vulnerability. I feel like everything now is so polished. When you come to a War and Treaty show we actually want you to let your hair down and just be yourself.”
When asked what she hopes to convey to an audience at a War and Treaty show, Tanya said, “Vulnerability. I feel like everything now is so polished. When you come to a War and Treaty show we actually want you to let your hair down and just be yourself.
“What I experienced as a teenager going to church in these old black Baptist churches, they came in one way, they left out another way, and I saw that transformation happen with my own eyes. What I would love to see when people come to our shows is that they feel transformed, that they come in one way, and they leave out another way.”
Michael added, “Hope. I just want to help people get to the next point. Hope — that’s it.”
