Hey Y'all is the second studio album by the American singer Elizabeth Cook, released on August 27, 2002, by the Warner Bros. record label.

Although Warner Bros. executives discussed the possibility of a follow-up album, Cook left the label in 2003 and pursued a career in independent music.

[2] Five songs from the album ("Everyday Sunshine", "Don't Bother Me", "Blue Shades", "Demon", and "Mama You Wanted to Be a Singer Too") were included on Hey Y'all.

[2][4] During a Christmas party and a later lunch, Cook met Pete Fisher, a manager at the Grand Ole Opry, and was invited to sing at the theater.

[5] For Hey Y'all, Cook collaborated with performers she met at the Grand Ole Opry, including the Whites and the Carol Lee Singers.

[15] In a 2016 article for the Chicago Tribune, Steven Knopper said Hey Y'all represented Cook's "folksy sense of humor".

[18] According to Style Weekly's Mike Hilleary, Cook had become known for "her loyalty to old-time honky-tonk and weeping country ballads" after the release of Hey Y'all.

[20] Robert L. Doerschuk said Cook had a "nasal intonation and Southern lilt",[5] and Langston wrote that she sounded "high, slightly pinched".

[23] A commentator for the National Post said Hey Y'all was composed of "sexually charged honky tonkers" and "classic weepers".

[5] Larry Aydlette, writing for The Palm Beach Post, remarked that "Stupid Things", as well as "Demon", had more "modern sensibilities" than the album's more traditional songs.

[12][22] Using lyrics referring to Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, Cook sings that she succeeded while her mother had five children with a man who abandoned her.

[22] For the fourth track "Dolly", Cook asks Parton questions about the music industry,[20] specifically how to handle "hound-dog men and pushy record companies".

[5] The following song, "Blue Shades", has lyrics about heartbreak and an instrumental built around "classic old-time harmonies and medium-tempo rockabilly sway".

[1] Cook referred to the album's promotion as a grassroots campaign, explaining that it would "focus on markets that we feel we can get traditional music played".

[6] On August 24, 2002, Cook performed "Stupid Things" as well as a stripped-down cover of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" (1956) at the Grand Ole Opry.

[11] Country Standard Time's Clarissa Sansone praised Hey Y'all as referencing the "prairie-skirt heyday of Dolly and Emmylou" instead of attempting to be crossover music like Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

[2] Larry Aydlette said although Cook initially looked like an attempt to mimic Twain, she is set apart by her "healthy respect for serious country music" as shown by her choice to cover "I'm Not Lisa" and include Bill Anderson on "Don't Bother Me".

[15] Jim Patterson wrote that Richard Dodd's production helped to elevate Hey Y'all from being just "the perfect-yet-boring Nashville norm".

[20] Some reviewers highlighted Cook's songwriting, including Dayton Daily News's Lawrence Budd who said the album showed her as a "singer-songwriter with stories to share".

[31] Robert L. Doerschuk remarked that Cook used her songwriting to connect with "a more conservative aesthetic" instead of following popular trends in contemporary country music.

[5] Despite their criticism of the album's "hick title", a contributor for The Greenville News commended Cook for writing with "vivid immediacy and smartness".

[18] Patterson described Cook as a "great writer, taking on with sly wit topics such as her own quest for stardom", and singled out "Everyday Sunshine" and "Stupid Things" as "well-written pop confections".

In a 2004 article for The Tennessean, Peter Cooper praised Hey Y'all as "one of the finer Music Row works of the new millennium".

[39][40] In 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nick Cristiano said Cook deserved more commercial success with Hey Y'all, but noted that she improved with her follow-up album This Side of the Moon (2004).

[12] In a 2011 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Cook said Warner Bros. pushed her to record songs that followed radio trends; she explained that she refused to write music for the sole purpose of becoming the next "summertime feel-good hit", and joked: "I would rather mow my lawn.

[1][8][44] In a 2005 Country Standard Time article, Rick Bell believed her experiences with the record label had given her a "sense of betrayal and bitterness", which she explored on This Side of the Moon.