Tour news: Civil Wars to break out in NZ

Joy Williams and John Paul White will play in Auckland next March. Photo / Supplied

American country folk duo to perform at Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Grammy-winning country folk act The Civil Wars are coming to New Zealand as a part of an Australasian tour with a difference.

Most of the venues for the March 2013 shows by Joy Williams and John Paul White will be churches - their Auckland show will be at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell.

The band came to notice last year with debut album Barton Hollow which won them best folk album and best country duo/group performance for its title track. The record and their live shows have won them critical acclaim and big-name fans such as Adele and Taylor Swift. Williams and White met in 2009 after struggling with individual careers.

They paired up together at a songwriting camp in Nashville Tennessee and realised they had something.

"As soon as we started to sing together it was like we'd been doing it for generations," White told the Observer. "Like our parents had been doing it and their parents had, like a brother-sister thing, from the womb to where there was this subconscious thing that meant we didn't have to say anything."

Who: The Civil Wars
Where and when: St James Theatre, Tuesday March 19; Holy Trinity Cathedral Parnell, Thursday March 21
Tickets: Pre-sale via frontiertouring.com from 4pm Wednesday October 3 to 4pm Thursday October 4 and general sales from 9am Friday October 5.