The album was recorded and released in 1972; all ten tracks had been composed by Nesmith prior to and during his time as a member of The Monkees.

Nesmith has stated that the title of the album is a reaction to RCA Records repeatedly asking him to write more hit songs and features Nesmith's own version of his tune "Different Drum", a hit for The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt in 1967.

"Different Drum" made a brief unofficial debut on The Monkees episode "Too Many Girls" when Mike, posing as a folk singer suffering from stage fright, butchers its lyrics while playing the guitar.

[3] Nesmith performed the album on tour with Pete Finney playing pedal steel guitar in 2019.

[2] In a retrospective review for Allmusic, critic Mark Deming called the album "truly inspired" and wrote "Nesmith and Rhodes use the album's spare instrumentation to their advantage, with the performances both empathetic and intimate, and Rhodes' masterful steel gives these songs a graceful resonance few full bands could muster... modest in approach but very satisfying in execution, practically defining the phrase "happy accident.