The group existed as a casual songwriting collective prior to its association with Crow, but rapidly developed into a vehicle for her debut album after her arrival (she was at the time dating Kevin Gilbert, who actually co-wrote most of the songs for this album along with Crow, Baerwald, Ricketts, Bottrell, Schwartz and MacLeod). Her relationship with Gilbert became acrimonious soon after the album release and there were disputes about songwriting credits. In interviews later, Crow claimed to have written them. Both Gilbert and Baerwald castigated Crow publicly in the fallout, although Baerwald later softened his position. A similar tension arose with TMC member Bill Bottrell after her second album, on which he collaborated during the early stages.