The Berkeley-based band, Joy of Cooking, were quite the anomaly in the late 1960s; a band fronted by two women, who wrote and arranged the songs, sang lead vocals and played the frontline instruments, with three men providing the backup. Led by two talented songwriters, pianist Toni Brown and guitarist Terry Garthwaite, their music blended elements of folk, rock, country, jazz, and blues into a sound uniquely their own. One of the first bands to deal with feminist and environmental topics, they were ahead of their time and deserve credit for laying the groundwork for more commercially successful bands like Heart and latter-day Fleetwood Mac.
Following three compelling but only modestly successful Joy of Cooking albums—Joy Of Cooking and Closer To The Ground, which were both released in 1971, and 1972's Castles—Brown and Garthwaite headed to Nashville. There they recorded the long out of print Cross Country album, released in 1973 under the name Toni & Terry, before pursuing separate paths, each recording a solo album the following year. Although these albums failed to achieve commercial success, and were only heard by relatively few, they each contained a wealth of new material that retained the integrity and variety of their previous work.