[7] While giving birth to Ethan, their mother, Jenny Williams Gruska, suffered a stroke; she recovered, and her story became the basis for a 1994 NBC television film titled A Time to Heal (for which their father wrote the music) and later for their song "Lucky Guy".

[1] Their first album, The Belle Brigade, was co-produced by Barbara, Ethan and Matthew Wilder and released on Reprise Records in April 2011.

[9] They also feature a song on the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 soundtrack, "I Didn't Mean It", and performed Bob Dylan's "No Time to Think" on the Amnesty International benefit album Chimes of Freedom.

[11][12] The Belle Brigade's music, marked by harmonies reminiscent of The Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel, has been described as having roots in the classic California pop rock and country sounds of groups like Fleetwood Mac and The Flying Burrito Brothers[13] as well as The Beatles.

Los Angeles Times music writer Randall Roberts described their album as "a dozen California pop gems" and said of their first single, "Losers": "A defiant, classically structured song about being sick of social games, pretense and irony, "Losers" feels like one of those works of alienation that's existed forever, one that would ring true just as clearly had it been released in 1957 or 1974.