After regaining the rights to the album through a lawsuit, Uncle Tupelo released a remastered version in 2003 through Legacy Records, expanded to include six bonus tracks.

The demo tape, Not Forever, Just for Now, contained early versions of several songs that would later appear on their debut album, including "Train", "Whiskey Bottle", "Flatness", "Screen Door", and "Before I Break".

Record labels initially were wary of signing the band whom they perceived as straddling "the divide between the countrified punk of early 1980s such as Green on Red, Jason & the Scorchers, and X—none of whom had bum-rushed the charts—and the Pacific Northwest grunge of Mudhoney and Nirvana, which was still years from breaking out commercially".

[3][7] Six months before signing a full contract with Giant/Rockville, Uncle Tupelo recorded the tracks for No Depression over ten days in January 1990 at Fort Apache South, a musician-run studio in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

[9] The producers allowed Farrar to use the same 1961 Gibson Les Paul guitar that J. Mascis used on Bug, which gave the power chords on No Depression a richer tone.

[10] Slade and Kolderie suggested that the band deemphasize the roots rock influences heard on Not Forever, Just for Now and convinced them to replace the harmonica parts with pedal steel guitar.

Farrar and Tweedy romanticized tales about unemployment, alcoholism, and the feeling of living in a small town in an effort to emulate the profundity of songwriters such as Woody Guthrie.

[24] Rolling Stone did not publish a review of the album upon its initial release, although the magazine later featured Uncle Tupelo in an article about rising stars alongside The Black Crowes.

[24] Among the bonus tracks were cover versions of the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City", the Carter Family's "Blues Die Hard", and The Vertebrats' "Left in the Dark".

[3] Upon re-release, AllMusic referred to the album as "Uncle Tupelo's landmark opening salvo", praising its "undeniable electricity" and remarking that it brought "new life" to the fusion of country and punk rock.

[14] Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon lauded "the band's impressive songwriting range", but noted that the bonus material was "pleasant but inconsequential".