The Civil Wars blur musical lines

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Even Grammy voters don't know what to do with the Civil Wars.

The duo has been nominated for best folk album and best country duo/group performance, two categories that bear little resemblance to each other. Fellow nominees run the spectrum from Kenny Chesney to Eddie Vedder to Gillian Welch.

And John Paul White and Joy Williams love it.

"We kind of had a little bit of a grin between the two of us and our team as well about that, too," Williams said. "I think it's fun the fact that we can't be pigeonholed into one or the other. That's just fine with us."

"We're going for best dance recording next year. We're going to do a dubstep record," White joked.

Truth be told, they don't have time to record an album right now. The Civil Wars were one of music's underground success stories of 2011. The pair of hard-working, long-toiling solo artists joined together as a songwriting partnership and found the next step in their performance careers. Championed by Taylor Swift, Adele and dozens of other artists, it's been a nonstop acceleration as they continue to sell copies of their 2011 debut album "Barton Hollow," tour (they visited Austin's Paramount Theatre in January and are scheduled to tape an episode of "Austin City Limits" on Feb. 29), and collaborate with artists they never would have expected.

They recently debuted "Safe & Sound," their "Hunger Games" soundtrack song with Swift, live at Ryman Auditorium with a surprise visit from the pop star. And they unveiled at Sundance the new documentary soundtrack for "Finding North" which they co-wrote with T Bone Burnett. They'll leave for their first European tour about two weeks after the Grammy ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles.

They hope to spend time there with fellow nominee Swift, who knew each as a solo artist and was instrumental in drawing attention to them.

"I love the Civil Wars because they're such a perfect example of two people who seem to be absolutely meant to make music together," Swift said in an email. "Seeing JP and Joy come up with harmonies in the studio together is like watching a pair of twins communicating in their own way, finishing each other's sentences and thoughts."

They hope to achieve the same kind of audience reaction in Europe. In less than a year, their audience has grown from a hundred or so a show to thousands who soak in their dramatic harmonies and simple instrumentation in rapt silence.

"I'd be lying if we said we had our brains wrapped completely around it," White said. "We've kind of had blinders on all the last year and just focused on what's going on that day. And each night we look up to a bigger crowd in a bigger city, a bigger piece of transportation, our crew gets bigger and it's like, 'How did this happen?'"