The husband-wife duo of Terry Woods and Gay Woods is known mostly for their brief stint in the first lineup of Steeleye Span, which lasted for just one album and a few months before the couple left. While Steeleye Span -- with Ashley Hutchings, Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, and new recruit Martin Carthy -- went on to become established as one of Britain's top folk-rock bands and go through several more lineup changes, the Woods sank into relative obscurity. They did, however, soon found a folk-rock band of their own, the Woods Band, with guitarist Ed Deane and drummer Pat Nash. Terry Woods also wanted uilleann piper Paddy Keenan for the group, but didn't get him, though Keenan would go on to play with the Bothy Band.

The Woods Band released one self-titled album in 1971 that actually sounded rather similar to, and held its own with, Steeleye Span's own early work. The record was a respectable mixture of traditional material and originals (largely from the pen of Terry Woods), with standard rock instruments embellished by mandola, concertina, autoharp, dulcimer, bodhran, and harpsichord. After the Woods Band split, Terry and Gay Woods recorded three albums as a duo in the last half of the 1970s. Splitting as both a couple and professional duo in 1980, Terry Woods joined the Pogues in 1985, while Gay Woods was in Auto Da Fe in the 1980s, rejoining Steeleye Span for six years starting in 1994. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi