For far too long, folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier was the exclusive province of a fierce but small cult following; a singer/songwriter whose cathartic, deeply spiritual music defied simple genre categorization, he went all but unknown for decades, finally beginning to earn the recognition long due him after his rediscovery during the early 90s. Born in Chicagos North Side — also home to Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, and Ramsey Lewis — and raised in the area of the notorious Cabrini Green housing projects, Callier began studying the piano at the age of three, writing his first songs at the age of 11, and regularly singing in doo wop groups throughout his formative years. While attending college, he learned to play guitar, eventually setting up residency at a Chicago coffeehouse dubbed the Fickle Pickle and in time coming to the attention of Chess Records arranger Charles Stepney, who produced Calliers debut single Look at Me Now in 1962.

In 1964, Callier met Prestige label producer Samuel Charters, and a year later they entered the studio to record his full-length bow The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier; upon completion of the session, however, Charters traveled to Mexico with the master tapes in tow, and the album went unreleased before finally appearing to little fanfare in 1968. Undaunted, Callier remained a fixture of the Windy City club scene, and in 1970 he and partner Larry Wade signed on with his boyhood friend Jerry Butlers Chicago Songwriters Workshop. There they composed material for local labels including Chess and Cadet, most notably authoring the Dells 1972 smash The Love We Had Stays on My Mind. The songs success again teamed Callier with Stepney, now a producer at Cadet, and yielded 1973s Occasional Rain, a beautiful fusion of folk and jazz textures which laid the groundwork for the sound further explored on the following years What Color Is Love?