Following the fulfillment of the two-album contract and lackluster sales, Fahey was released from Reprise and went back to recording for his own Takoma label.

[1] Speaking of both Of Rivers and Religion and After the Ball in a 1998 interview for The Wire, Fahey recalled, "I don't understand why they got bad reviews.

The title song, "After the Ball" by Charles K. Harris, was popularized in Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's 1927 musical Show Boat.

and "The album cover and even the selected tunes and titles are cuttingly funny, but the songs themselves are played warmly and delivered with care, heartfelt arrangements, and a slightly satirical sentimentality.

"[3] The music critic Robert Christgau wrote, "I'd rather listen to this collection of standards and acoustic blues and rag inventions than any rock record this side of the Allmans and the New York Dolls.