Cris Williamson and Teresa Trull

In 1989, Cris Williamson and Teresa Trull, recording together for Olivia Records' Second Wave label, released Country Blessed, which included three Gary Marks songs originally recorded on his 1988 album The Real World: "Soulful Days," "The Love We Take," and "For Molly's Sky." "Soulful Days" was later selected for Williamson's 2005 career retrospective, The Essential Cris Williamson, a collection of her own selected best-known work.

Teresa Trull's Earlier Connection

Trull's connection to Marks's songwriting goes back further still. On her 1986 album A Step Away, Trull recorded Marks's "Only Time Can Tell," and Marks co-wrote the album's title track, "A Step Away," with her. Trull also contributed backing vocals to Marks's own recording of "The Real World," alongside Bonnie Hayes and Vicki Randle.

Teresa Trull first met Marks at a restaurant in Berkeley called "Shem's." Barbara Higbie, a brilliant pianist, fiddle player, and singer-songwriter known for her Windham Hill recordings, introduced them, thinking Trull might be interested in singing some of Marks's songs on her next record. The friendship between the three of them is still strong more than thirty-five years later.

Almost Four Decades of Artists Recording Gary Marks Songs

Cris Williamson remains one of the most recognized names in women's music, with a recording career stretching back to the 1960s, and Teresa Trull has worked alongside her as both a performer and producer for decades. Their recordings of Marks's songs span from Trull's 1986 recording of "Only Time Can Tell," the title track of his first rock album, through the duo era of Olivia Records, while Reuben Aziz co-wrote "IDOLS" with Marks in 2024, almost four decades later.

Olivia Records was one of the founding labels of the women's music movement, built specifically to release music by and for women outside the mainstream industry. That a male singer-songwriter's compositions found a home there, chosen and recorded on their own terms by two of the movement's best-known artists, says as much about the songs and Marks's powerfully attuned lyrics as it does about the collaborators.

Williamson's own 1975 Olivia release, The Changer and the Changed, became one of the best-selling independent albums of its era.