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The War and Treaty: Tiny Desk Concert

NPR Music · Jul 23, 2026 · published to YouTube

Tom Huizenga | July 23, 2026 I told myself I wasn’t going to tear up at this Tiny Desk by The War and Treaty. So much for willpower. When a performance is this strong, there’s no holding back. For more than a decade, Michael and Tanya Trotter, a husband-and-wife duo based in Nashville, have delivered music directly from the heart. There is no pretense; they are exactly themselves. Naturally, it helps to possess voices rich in both opulence and amplitude, along with emotive astuteness. Michael can toss off a gritty scream reminiscent of Bobby Womack, but touched with the sensuality of Teddy Pendergrass, while Tanya can rock out her voice, à la Tina Turner. Tanya traces her career roots back to Washington, D.C., while Michael’s back story is more tangled. He taught himself piano as a soldier when there happened to be an instrument in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces where he and his U.S.

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