Taking their name from an old Scottish folk song, Hoboken, New Jersey-based Speed the Plough employ a rich amalgam of pastoral folk-pop, alternative rock, and jangle pop. Emerging in the late '80s out of the ashes of the Trypes, the band drew from a wide range of influences including the Beatles, Fairport Convention, Velvet Underground, and Erik Satie. After releasing their eponymous debut in 1989, Speed the Plough went on to issue a string of well-received albums that found favor with the college rock crowd before the group went on hiatus in 1995. They reconvened in 2009 with a new lineup that included some of the bandmembers' grown children, releasing Swerve, their first album in 15 years, in 2010. Subsequent efforts Now (2015) and ...And Then (2018) continued in the vein of previous outings, delivering heartfelt chamber folk-pop with slight psychedelic underpinnings.

Founded in 1984 by John and Toni Paruda-Baumgartner and Marc Francia, the band has experienced multiple lineup changes over the years, with the Baumgartners and Francia serving as the foundation. Speed the Plough's origins date back to 1982, when the group was known as the Trypes. Originally comprising keyboardist John Baumgartner, singer/woodwind player Toni Paruda-Baumgartner, bassist Brenda Sauter, percussionist Stanley Demeski, and guitarist Marc Francia, the lineup soon expanded to include guitarists Bill Million and Glenn Mercer, both on hiatus from the in-limbo Feelies. After releasing a 1984 EP of introspective, rustic pop titled The Explorers Hold, Million and Mercer reactivated the Feelies, taking Sauter and Demeski with them; renaming themselves Speed the Plough, the remaining Trypes added guitarist Frank O'Toole, bassist Pete Pedulla, and drummer/music writer Jim DeRogatis, with chief songwriter John Baumgartner sharing vocal chores with Paruta on the band's self-titled debut LP, produced by Million and released on Coyote in 1989. With Pedulla and DeRogatis exiting the roster soon after, Sauter and Demeski returned to the fold to record 1991's expansive Wonder Wheel. Mason's Box arrived two years later, followed by Marina in 1995, both of which saw the group maintaining its musical vision, pairing dreamy chamber folk melodies with jangly college pop.

They returned in 2009 after a long hiatus with a lineup that featured the Baumgartners' son Mike on guitar and Francia's sons Ian and Dan on drums and bass, respectively. They issued a new studio LP, Swerve, in 2010, with a three-song EP, The Summer Sessions, arriving later that year. Guitarist Ed Seifert joined the group for its sixth album, 2011's Shine, which was released via Dromedary Records. Acute Records issued a Trypes retrospective titled Music for Neighbors in 2012, and in 2013 Bar None released The Plough and the Stars, a Speed the Plough compilation. Dan and Ian Francia left to pursue other musical projects in 2013, so the band brought in Cindi Merklee on bass and vocals and John Demeski, the son of Feelies kit man and onetime Speed the Plough member Stanley Demeski, on drums. That crew made its studio debut on 2015's Coyote Records-issued Now. In 2018 the band issued its eighth studio long-player, ...And Then, which brought back bassist Dan Francia and introduced drummer Ken Meyer. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi