Guthrie and Eisner, who played guitar and wrote songs, became infatuated with Brazilian songwriter João Gilberto and his wife, Astrud. Encouraging Guthrie to sing, Eisner wrote a peculiar narrative song with vague bossa nova overtones titled Emily's Illness, sung from the perspective of a teenage girl dying of a mysterious ailment. In the fall of 1967, with Guthrie singing, the two recorded the song, along with a studio band arranged by Artie Schroeck, another Spoonful-affiliated associate. The single was backed with another original, the string-abetted Home Before Dark. Released in November by Mercury Records, the single sold poorly and received moderate airplay in San Francisco. Guthrie and Eisner demurred from recording the contracted follow-up. The pair split in the early '70s when Eisner moved to Los Angeles to become a music executive. Guthrie spent nearly two decades as a dancer, before retiring to administer her father's estate. In 1998, she oversaw the conception and production of two volumes of Mermaid Avenue, in which British folksinger Billy Bragg and American rock band Wilco set unused Woody lyrics to new music. In 2008, Guthrie earned a Grammy for her role in the production of a live Woody Guthrie album, recorded in 1949, titled The Live Wire. The Japanese EM label reissued Emily's Illness on vinyl in 2009. ~ Jesse Jarnow, Rovi