He’s memorializing again … on a much bigger stage

For many people, it’s a brief blip: On Memorial Day, they remember fallen soldiers; then life goes on.
But for Michael Trotter, it seemed to be daily – writing and singing tributes to his late colleagues. “Sometimes it would be six in a week,” he said. “Sometimes six in a month.”
These days, he’s half of the powerhouse, married duo called The War and Treaty (shown here), which will sing at the National Memorial Day Concert, at 8 and 9:30 p.m. Sunday (May 28, the eve of the holiday) on PBS. They’ll be alongside gospel great Yolanda Adams, country stars Trace Adkins and Jo Dee Messina, “American Idol” champion Phillip Phillips and more.
It continues a journey that began two decades ago, when Trotter wrote a song on (really) Saddam Hussein’s piano. Along the ways, there have been harsh detours. “We’ve gone through a lot of difficulties,” said Tanya Trotter, his wife and music partner. “We were homeless a lot.”
This was not what was expected of her life. Even before college, she had a great Hollywood moment.
Fresh from high school, she’d auditioned (as Tanya Blount) for “Sister Act 2” (1993). Lauryn Hill got the lead role, but Whoopi Goldberg was impressed with both. “We went over to her house … and she said, ‘Is there a gospel song you could sing together?’”
Tanya suggested “His Eye is On the Sparrow,” a 1905 classic. Hill hadn’t heard it before, but it provided a strong moment in a weak film. Hill soon became a star; Tanya didn’t.
Encouraged by her mother and by her manager, she tried to simultaneously be a college student (studying psychology and singing in the choir at Morgan State) and a budding R-&-B star. Her singles sold adequately; then she signed with Sean “Ditty” Combs’ label, with little success. “I didn’t want to go hip-hop, but I was on a hip-hop label.”
Despite immense talent, she was drifting. She did some stage musicals and had a song in a Tyler Perry movie. When she was performing at a back-to-school “Love Fest,” she heard about newcomer Michael Trotter. “I was fascinated by the passion in his writing and his performance.”
That passion emerged from pain. At 13, he got on a bus with his mother and moved from Cleveland to a shelter in Washington, D.C.; at 18, he was in the Army.
That’s why he was in one of Hussein’s homes, where he found a piano and wrote a song. His commander promised to listen to it later … but never returned; Michael wrote a song for his memorial.
Soon, he was being asked to do that over and over. “I tried to provide some sort of comfort …. I was memorializing my fellow soldiers.”
But he wasn’t able to comfort himself. At one point years later, Tanya says, he considered suicide. “I said, ‘Just give yourself five minutes and 10 minutes more.’”
That later became “Five More Minutes,” their most successful single (No. 22 on the adult-alternative chart), but there were lots of twists first.
At one point, Michael found them a home in Albion, a Michigan college town of 7,700. “At first, I didn’t like it at all,” Tanya admits. “What I liked was that he liked it.”
She soon was charmed by the town and its music community. They stayed a couple years, shot several music videos there … then moved to Nashville.
There they has a mentor (Buddy Miller) and a niche; The Americana Music Honors has named them best emerging artist and best duo or group.
Still, their sound has gospel atits core. “It’s the foundation for every kind of music,” Tanya said.
But that leaves room for Americana and for country. Both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music have nominated them for best duo. The CMA has featured them on two of its award shows and its “Country Christmas” special.
And now comes new turf. “It’s PBS,” Michael said. “I grew up on that network.”
This time they’ll be singing to the multitudes (on the Capitol Lawn and at home), doing what he used to do individually – providing musical memorials for fallen soldiers.