Album Review – The War and Treaty’s “Plus One”

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#577 (Country Soul), #570 (Americana), with some #530 (Pop Country) on the Country DDS.

There is no easy or succinct way to regard The War and Treaty’s new album Plus One. It starts off terribly, but goes on to include perhaps some of the best songs of their entire catalog. It’s not really country at all, until it delivers some of the most country-sounding songs of their career. It frustrates you, until it absolutely inspires you and lifts your spirit. It’s kind of a mess in spots, but one that delivers you precious gemstones that once you unearth, you clutch close.

Plus One finds The War and Treaty both trying to find the ultimate expression of themselves by writing and producing their own material, and then very strangely, trying to court mainstream Nashville radio country by working with outside writers and producers on poorly conceived tracks. It also happens to be that the worst of this mainstream experiment starts the album off, potentially creating a moat around the best of what Plus One has to offer.

According to a Rolling Stone feature, The War and Treaty wanted to ingratiate themselves to Nashville and country radio though this album, saying, “Country radio has expressed to us that it wants us ..There are certain songs we created and dedicated just for country radio, just for Nashville.” But country radio is never going to play The War and Treaty. They’re just saying they will because they don’t want to be called racist. Country radio is not for them anyway. It’s for the folks who don’t have enough talent to make it on their own.

Country radio is of the past. The War and Treaty needs to be The War and Treaty. What is far and away their most successful track? It’s their collaboration with Zach Bryan on the song “Hey Driver.” Similar to Kacey Musgraves, Zach Bryan has done more for The War and Treaty than their entirety of the mainstream country industry. Zach Bryan also just sold out the highest ticketed single event in the history of the United States at Michigan Stadium in September … and you won’t find him on country radio.


Plus One is a lot to take in, and not just because it includes 18 songs. It might as well include 40 songs with the way the album incorporates such a sweeping amount of influences and textures. At this point, these 18-song, 25-song, 30-song albums are more injurious to the album concept than performers who only release singles and EPs, because these massive albums forward the idea that the LP is simply a dumping ground for everything an artist works on over a two-year period as opposed to a cohesive, purposeful expression, encapsulating a specific era of a performer.

Cut down and sequenced a differently, Plus One could be an Album of the Year candidate. If you isolating the bad tracks on an EP, it might be rant worthy. So ultimately, you have to regard this album song by song, which you can find below, aggregated into an overall score of 6.8/10.

But make no mistake about it. The War and Treaty don’t need to go the way of mainstream country. Mainstream country needs to go the way of The War and Treaty.

Song Reviews:



1. “Love Like Whiskey” – Poorly produced by Jesse Frasure, with over-processed vocals and too many things going on, this is a standard soul song rendered over Bro-Country lyrics. It takes the “more is more” approach with horns and all kinds of stuff all fighting with each other to be the center of attention, until it just becomes a muddy mess screaming at you through the speakers. “In the pouring rain” is never not a cliché line when issued in a song.

Strangely, Miranda Lambert is also a co-writer on this song that was probably left on the cutting house floor from another project, and probably should have stayed there. This is the “Lets get The War and Treaty on the radio” concept at its worst. Putting this as the first song on this album will create a barrier to The War & Treaty’s true fans, while not in any way be alluring enough to entice new mainstream ones. 3

2. “Skyscraper” – Excellent, vulnerable, personal, and expressive writing here by Michael Trotter Jr., done dirty by the terrible production of Andrew Capra, including programmed drums, and a vocal chorus that hopes to evoke the Gospel history of this duo. But similar to the first song, “Skyscraper” just descends into a wall of sound where the beauty of the individual performances is drowned out. 4



3. “Can I Get An Amen” – On this song, it’s pop country songwriter Jonathan Singleton taking his turn as co-writer/producer to take what could have been a decent War and Treaty song, and turning it into product by incorporating programmed drums, and a weird, incoherent, repeating vocal line by Michael Trotter in the chorus. Though not as bad as the first two tracks, it’s still kind of a disaster of process. 4

4. “Called You By Your Name” – This is more like it. Solely written and produced by Michael and Tanya, this is a super fun and unexpected track that works like a tent revival incorporated with a Squirrel Nut Zippers approach that exudes a lots of frenetic enthusiasm. And despite being (maybe a little too) up-temp, it is still is able to capture the incredible vocal performances that is at the heart of War and Treaty appeal.

It’s fair to worry that after the “wall of sound” approach of the first four songs, this track will also come across as a little much. But isolated, it’s pretty stupendous, though perhaps a little too repetitive. This will be fun live. 8



5. “Stealing A Kiss” – This is a classic The War and Treaty song, and one that is not country soul, or even “Americana.” It’s simply a soul love song that in previous eras, would have been called this very thing. It’s also the kind of song that Michael and Tanya can tee up, and knock out of the park. No wonder that from the early singles of the album, this one is by far the most streamed. 7

6. “Teardrops In The Rain” – A fine song, but something your mother would listen to on the easy listening station as she drives you to school. A little too Captain and Tennille for many people’s tastes, but something The War and Treaty does well. 7

7. “Leads Me Home” – Now we get into the country and country soul material of the album, with “Leads Me Home” being straight traditional country, and clearly inspired by John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” In fact, the opening melody, and the way the chorus resolves might be a little too close to “Country Roads” for some, but the homage and the way it evokes nostalgia enlivens this song to make it one of the album’s strongest contributions. 8

8. “Carried Away” – This is a perfect example of the kind of country soul that has put The War and Treaty on the map, and made them one of the preeminent proprietors of the subgenre. Really, “Carried Away” is a country song, full stop. It’s just also a launching pad for Michael and Tanya’s soaring and soulful vocals. 9



9. “Drink From Me” – A progressive bluegrass track from The War and Treaty featuring Billy Strings on guitar? Yes, please. “Drink From Me” is one of the unexpected gems of Plus One, and exposes the country roots behind their sound when it’s captured at its best. 9

10. “Reminisce” – Plus One really isn’t a songwriter record. It’s the performances of The War and Treaty that make them remarkable, and the songs work to compliment their natural gifts and talent. But “Reminisce” feels like a very personal and reflective track from the duo as they settle into a mid career period, and look forward to a future where all the memories their making and achievements they attain can be reflected back upon. The fiddle and steel guitar give pleasing textures to a strong melody. The only frustrating part of this song is how it concludes the short, 4-song country portion of the album. 8

11. “Save Me” – Though it’s a little sneaky, this is actually one of the radio-oriented tracks on the album, co-written by Kendall Marvell, and co-produced with Andrew Capra. It’s also probably the best of the radio-oriented tracks of Plus One. “Save Me” is pretty safe and nondescript, but works as a song. 7

12. “Love Is On Fire” – Like the previous track “Save Me,” and the next track “I Can’t Let You Go,” this song is part of The War and Treaty’s effort to find a more radio-friendly, more mainstream Nashville sound, down to the token banjo part. The safeness and pop sensibility sown into the track by producer Jonathan Singleton is obvious. But similar to “Save Me,” “Love Is On Fire” is generally inoffensive, especially compared to the first few songs of the album. 7



13. “I Can’t Let You Go” – This is quite an interesting track. Written and produced by Michael and Tanya solely, it nonetheless feels like their take on Hardy-style rap rock radio country. Though a lot of energy and attitude is expended in the 3 minutes and 43 seconds, this just doesn’t feel like what The War and Treaty should be dabbling in at all. This should have been the first excessive track to be trimmed from this album. A lot must go wrong to make it feel like Michael and Tanya are participating in bad, White boy tractor rap. 3

14. “Home” – “Home” is another strong songwriting track solely written by Michael Trotter, and one that feels like it could be inspired by a true story, either Michel’s or someone else’s. It is one of Plus One‘s few story songs, with the mood and music crescendoing near the ending with steel guitar emerging in the mix. “Home” might not be the best song on the album, but it might be one of the better ones that deserves to not be overlooked. 8

15. “Love Light” – You can tell that this is one of those songs that The War and Treaty will turn into a epic, earth-shattering, soul-sending moment live. Beyond everything else, Michael and Tanya Trotter are some of the most amazing artists to see perform live in the entirety of the country and roots space, and you can tell when someone dismisses them on the spot that they’ve never seen them in concert. “Love Light” is a little too repetitive to call a great song, but it’s here to seed the live show with a stellar moment. 7

16. “Mr. Fun” – At some point, you simply have to shelve all the talk about genre and influence, and just marvel at the sheer and unmitigated talent that comes bursting out of The War and Treaty, and be rendered stupefied. Sometimes, if not often, it is difficult to impossible to capture talent like this in a studio recording. “Mr. Fun” accomplishes this with flying colors. 9



17. “Tunnel Vision” – This is a super fun track that shows off The War and Treaty’s classic rock influences that also appeared on their previous album, 2023’s Lover Game. This is another song that you can tell will be killer live. 8

18. “The Glorious Ones” – A very interesting track to close out the album that captures almost a Mumford/Lumineers vibe, synthesized through the Zach Bryan influence. It illustrates how The War and Treaty used their Plus One studio time to really try and explore different influences and sounds, sometimes to great success, other times to very mixed results. You can’t blame them for throwing different things up against the wall to see what sticks, though you can question the decision to put some of it out there for public consumption.

It’s also easy to come to the conclusion that The War and Treaty is at their best when they don’t try to be anything but themselves, which is a country soul super duo who finds their greatest moments when they bring their soaring voices to country-leaning compositions. 7

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