The project was initiated by Woody's daughter Nora Guthrie to have Farrar add music to her father's lyrics[4]—specifically, his earliest songwriting years in Los Angeles.

Guthrie died in 1967 after an extended battle with Huntington's disease, but his abbreviated career helped to inspire innumerable musicians during his lifetime as well as in the 1960s folk revival movement.

To write his own batch of songs, Farrar looked through several of the over 3,000 handwritten lyrics that Guthrie's estate has preserved before incidentally focusing on his California period.

[8] Immediately before going to the Archives in autumn 2006,[9] Farrar invited his Gob Iron collaborator Anders Parker to come with him and look over potential material and the two returned several times over a period of months gathering lyrics for composition before recording together starting on July 14, 2007.

[21] Additionally, Parker performed some of the New Multitudes material at the initial benefit concert SwitchPoint hosted by IntraHealth International in Saxapahaw, North Carolina on April 20.

[24] The tour was well-received, with The New York Times critic Nate Chinen describing their Webster Hall performance as familiar, but with a unique confluence of styles from each lyricist, from Yames' "hazy magnetism" to Parker's "straightforward folk-rock earnestness.

[27] MusicOMH's Max Raymond has praised the album as being "engrossing" due to the emotional depth of the lyrics as well as the warm and relaxed sound of the studio recording.

Club's Chris Martins, ranging from electric blues to psychedelia as well as the atypical lyrics from Guthrie—focusing on the city of Los Angeles rather than his communist-leaning politics and Dustbowl tragedy narratives.

Writing for Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis agrees that the songwriting diversity is a strength, comparing individual tracks with R.E.M., The Velvet Underground, Richard Thompson, and John Mellencamp.

"[38] Doug Collette of All About Jazz also reviewed the deluxe edition bonus disc, comparing it favorably to the proper album as well as the previous Farrar–Parker collaboration Gob Iron.