[6][7] Johansen created the album following a folk scene that was taking place in the late 1990s in New York City clubs.

Inspired by the 1997 reissue of musicologist Harry Everett Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (a compilation of 1920s and 1930s country and blues recordings), Johansen named his band "the Harry Smiths" and recorded and performed songs from, or inspired by, the Anthology.

The album was recorded at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, in New York City, and was produced by Brian Koonin and Norman Chesky.

though that Johansen's "half-spoken, half-sung style marries beautifully to the front-porch demeanour of these rich samples of the music harvested by the late musicologist.

"[10] The Chicago Reader wrote that "Johansen delivers even the most morbid lyrics with an offhand ease that gives them the immediacy of nightmares.