The War and Treaty performs Litty at Nashville's historic Woolworth Theatre

The War and Treaty performed “Litty” at Nashville’s Woolworth Theatre as CBS used its July 4 primetime special, The Great American Block Party 250, to frame America’s 250th birthday around a broader musical roster than the usual patriotic staples. Tony Dokoupil and Nischelle Turner hosted the broadcast, which also featured exclusive performances by Zac Brown Band, Jon Batiste, Goo Goo Dolls and other acts.

For Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, the appearance doubled as a showcase for The Story of Michael and Tanya, released June 19, 2026. The duo’s official site describes the album as 12 songs recorded live to tape in Nashville with a room full of friends, built around a Steinway and centered on their own shared story. “Litty” includes Whoopi Goldberg, giving the performance an extra layer of cross-generational star power inside a national holiday broadcast built to feel inclusive.

The setting mattered as much as the song. The Woolworth building opened in 1925 in downtown Nashville and later became a pivotal Civil Rights site when student-led sit-ins challenged segregation at its lunch counter in 1960. Putting The War and Treaty in that room linked the broadcast’s celebration of American identity to a place where Black students and allies forced the country to confront who was allowed to participate in public life.

That connection fit the larger message CBS and America250 were projecting. America250 has framed America’s Block Party as a nationwide July 3 and July 4 celebration tied to charitable giving through “Giving 4th,” while the television special leaned on a lineup that moved from country to soul to pop-rock. The War and Treaty’s inclusion suggested that the producers wanted the 250th-birthday programming to sound like a cultural coalition, not a museum piece. Whether that vision matches the country being celebrated is another question, but the Woolworth Theatre made the point in plain view: American music, and American memory, are being presented as wider than the old script.