[11][12] Brown's wife, Tanya Rae, and Jimmy Capps doubled on rhythm guitar to create a bigger sound.

"[20] USA Today considered the songs "old-fashioned Texas shuffles, kitschy '60s-style retro-rock with cooing girl choruses, and feedback-laced blues numbers that mix in jazz voicings and country licks.

"[9] The Village Voice concluded that Brown's "one of those artists, almost impossibly rare, whose ideas just can't be predicted... What he really does is just flat git it when the going gets strange.

"[16] Entertainment Weekly noted that Long Walk Back was "the first time the radical-traditionalist Texan honky-tonker has made a record as out-there as his talent merits.

"[18] The Vancouver Sun, the Orange County Register, and The Denver Post were among the many periodicals that considered Long Walk Back to be one of the best albums of 1998.