April 26, The Jefferson Theater
A famous musician named Paul McCartney once sang, “You’d think that people would’ve had enough of silly love songs / But I look around me and I see it isn’t so.” That was in 1976 and the co-founder of The Beatles was in a new band, Wings, with his wife Linda. Turns out that nearly 50 years later people still haven’t had enough of less-than-serious tracks about love. And judging by the growing success of The War and Treaty, people haven’t had enough of husband-and-wife duos singing them.
Fluent in what can perhaps be best described as soulful Americana roots music (encapsulating everything from folk to R&B to blues to country), Michael Trotter Jr and Tanya (Blount) Trotter have reached the heights of—or been recognized with—many genre-specific honors in their relatively short career.
The pair not only cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart via a duet with Zach Bryan (“Hey Driver”), they were also the first Black duo to be nominated for both the Country Music Association Award and Academy of Country Music Award, for Vocal Duo of the Year—in 2023 and again in 2024.
Michael is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq in the mid-2000s, and has said that he uses music as a form of therapy to get over the resulting grief of his former life. On the flip side, Tanya had already enjoyed some fame as a solo R&B artist when the two got together and released a full-length debut (Love Affair) under their last names, before rebranding with the current moniker and putting out Healing Tide in 2018.
The Trotters arrive in central Virginia supporting their latest, Plus One, a record that was unashamedly released on Valentine’s Day of this year. Maybe this will be the last tour where they’ll be able to perform in quarters as close as the Jefferson, so if you prefer your love songs in intimate settings, now’s your chance.
Supplied photo
