The album's lyrical content was partly influenced by Isbell's recent divorce from
Amanda Shires, his wife of eleven years and former bandmate. Isbell lists the tracks, "Eileen", "Gravelweed" and "True Believer", as songs that directly address their break-up: "With those three songs, especially, I’m trying to talk about a period in my life that was difficult, a lot of change. I got a divorce. I moved out of the house. I’m trying to help raise my daughter through all of this and deal with the fallout of the relationship. What I want to do is to be able to zoom out and sort of see things from a perspective that’s past simple bitterness or anger or resentment or anything like that. And I want to look at it from the point of view of what was this period in my life? In what ways was this formative for me? And how did I treat the other people who were involved? And how can I use that information to grow as a human being into whatever’s next? And all three of those songs deal with that." Several tracks on the album are written from the perspective of starting a new romance, with Isbell writing about his current relationship with artist
Anna Weyant, who created the album's artwork: "I’m trying to come into all of these songs, all these stories, with as much gratitude as I can have. And I’m trying to shape that, sit across the table with the version of myself that I’m not necessarily the most comfortable with and shape that into something that can bring a listener some joy." ==Track listing==