The songs on Older But No Wiser are notable for their thicker musical accompaniment than was typical of Clancy recordings, as well their first use of female back-up singers.

Three of the numbers, "When the Ship Comes In" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" by Bob Dylan and "Those Were the Days" by Gene Raskin, were written by the Clancys' old friends from Greenwich Village during the American folk music revival of the 1960s.

The Clancys had known "The Boys of Wexford" since their boyhoods, and a few other songs on the album were written by old friends, including "The Flower of Scotland," by the late Roy Williamson of The Corries.

[3][4] The group recorded the album at Ring Studios next to Liam Clancy's home in County Waterford, Ireland.

Patrick Street, writing in the magazine, Dirty Linen, called this last Clancy Brothers album "probably the best studio recording of their distinguished career."