After receiving positive feedback on his debut album, Jim Croce hit the road with wife Ingrid, playing folk covers as a duo across the northeast. They also wrote a batch of their own songs and recorded demos that were eventually attached to Jim’s posthumous releases.

The pair’s one official release was 1969’s Jim & Ingrid Croce, a collection of 11 folk songs, all but two of which were originals. This record is a step up from Croce’s debut, production-wise, and it’s a treat to hear his early compositions.

Ingrid, whose solo career never went anywhere, is a welcome presence here. Arguably the album’s finest moment is her performance of ‘The Next Man That I Marry,’ one of the album’s two covers.

The couple lived in the Bronx for awhlie, playing clubs in support of this album but not finding much success. Eventually, they returned to Pennsylvania and Jim started working blue-collar jobs to bring in money while continuing to work on his music. His experiences in those jobs ended up informing his songwriting, and resulted in his breakthrough release a few years later.