We have an early Christmas present for you today from a band of two that recently announced a hiatus from each other (they called it irreconcilable differences, but they are not married – at least to each other.) Joy Williams and John Paul White, better known as The Civil Wars, catapulted into the Americana world with meteoric trajectory. They won our hearts at the Americana Honors and Awards, and are nominated for a Grammy this year with Taylor Swift, who has been a fan of theirs since almost the beginning of their union. The Civil Wars: VH1 Unplugged will come out on January 15, 2013, and you will only find it on iTunes.

Here's hoping they reunite to tour behind it, as they create a communication on stage that is utterly captivating. Here is a taste, from 2011, when they played for the Music Fog cameras at Threadgill's WHQ during SXSW. The song is “From This Valley,” which can be found on the Mercyland, Hymns For The Rest Of Us album, which came out earlier this year.

-Jessie Scott