She included Dar Williams' "If I Wrote You", Richard Shindell's "Reunion Hill", and Betty Elders' "Crack in the Mirror" as well as two Sinéad Lohan compositions.

Around the time of the album's release, Baez confessed that she no longer found herself able to write songs and felt more comfortable reverting to her original role, as an interpreter.

The one track for which she receives credit, "Lily" (about a girlhood friend), was a poem written by Baez, to which Greenberg and Wilson added music.

In addition to giving the young songwriters a career boost by recording their songs, Baez took two of them—Shindell and Williams—on tour with her in 1997 to support the album.

Initial limited editions of this album, available only at Borders bookstores in the US, included a bonus CD of two songs: Betty Elders' "Long Bed from Kenya" and a duet with Dar Williams on Paul Simon's "Dangling Conversation", both of which were recorded live at the 1997 Newport Folk Festival.