Safe and Sound

Last Sunday, The Civil Wars made the most of 2 minutes of network airtime on the Grammy Awards as the “opening act” to Taylor Swift‘s performance of “Mean.” (They’d also been awarded two trophies of their own prior to the broadcast including Best Folk Album.) This week, the duo’s debut album Barton Hollow nearly tripled it sales from the previous week, almost exactly a year after its original release. Huzzah for The Civil Wars!

In addition to playing Taylor Swift’s opening act on the Grammy stage, singer-songwriters John Paul White and Joy Williams, who’d spent much of last year touring with Adele, co-wrote and recorded the song “Safe and Sound” with Swift and producer T-Bone Burnett for inclusion on the soundtrack to the forthcoming movie The Hunger Games. (The Civil Wars are also providing a song called “Kingdom Come”, sans Taylor, for the soundtrack.) This is a nice departure from Taylor Swift’s usual teenage study hall love letters and fairytale stuff. Have a listen: