He played various instruments for the project while working alongside studio musicians such as Flaco Jiménez, Juliette Commagere, Robert Francis, and Jim Keltner.

Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down features topical songs with socio-political subject matter about 21st-century America, including economic disparity, social injustice, politics, and war.

According to Slant Magazine's Joseph Jon Lanthier, "the orchestrated indignation of [the album] incorporated a protean Greek chorus of economic victims and beat Occupy Wall Street to the punch by several weeks.

"[1] After an 18-year hiatus from solo projects, Cooder returned with a trilogy of sociopolitical, Southern California-themed albums, comprising Chávez Ravine (2005), My Name Is Buddy (2007), and I, Flathead (2008).

[5] Before conceiving the album, he wrote and recorded the song "Quicksand" in 2010, as a response to the controversy spurred by Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and other anti-illegal immigration measures in the United States.

[3] In an interview with Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace, Cooder cited the song as the starting point for writing the album and stated, "'No Banker Left Behind' originated with a line from Robert Scheer's Truthdig blog.

"[4] According to him, musical settings for certain songs were decided based on their respective compositions, such as when "the words would come to me in ¾ time, that meant corrido, that means accordion; banda horns because they’re exciting.

"[11] Graham Reid of The New Zealand Herald writes that the music "refers to the dustbowl era, rural blues, Tex-Mex (with accordionist Flaco Jimenez) and old-time folk.

"[14] Lyrically, the album focuses on socio-political themes of power and its abuses, the struggle for democracy, the trials of the working class, and the goal of equality, with songs composed as either first-person narratives or allegories.

[11][15] The songs deal with contemporary subject matter and topics such as immigration legislation, the emotional and physical effects of war, the dubiousness of politics, social class and race division, and white flight.

[18] Allmusic's Thom Jurek characterizes it as "overtly political" and comments that "the depth of Cooder's rage is quieter but more direct as the album draws to a close.

[2] Journalist Alec Wilkinson comments that "what [the album] shares with them is an indignation over the economic and ethical disparities of American life and the destructive and scoundrely meanness of the privileges given to the rich.

"[19] Nick Cristiano of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes of the lyrics, "Cooder takes deadly aim at rapacious bankers, warmongers, land barons, and the like, showing the devastating impact of their actions on ordinary folk", adding that "He does this in a manner that mixes the scrappy populism of Woody Guthrie with the first-person narratives of Springsteen in Steinbeckian Ghost of Tom Joad mode.

"[17] Robin Denselow of The Guardian notes "bleak or thoughtful lyrics [set] against jaunty melodies" and "no elaborate narratives" in the songs, while interpreting the album's motif to be that of "a broken, divided society and the gap between rich and poor, but with the anger matched against humour.

"[20] Neil Spencer of Uncut calls Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down "an impassioned portrait of 21st century America and its injustices", adding that "like Guthrie, [Cooder] nails his targets with droll humour while empathising with society's underdogs.

Allmusic's Steve Huey asserts that the album "reache[s] all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption — political and social — the erasure and the rewriting of American history, and an emerging class war.

[23] Philip Majorins of PopMatters compares the album to other songwriters' "substantial statements" about the American zeitgeist, including Randy Newman's Harps and Angels (2008), Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What (2011), and Bob Dylan's Modern Times (2006).

[24] However, he distinguishes Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down as "an attempt at the existential, providing an everyman's view of struggle during economic downturn, class disparity, injustice, and abuse of power", calling him "a direct voice of protest, both musically and lyrically, that will not be mistaken for being impressionistic.

[10] The lyrics express a fictitious narrative by American outlaw Jessie James in Heaven, who claims to have never "turned a family from their house" when he was a bank robber.

[19] Cooder discussed the character's perspective in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today, stating: The point here is that Jesse James was a primitive white man from the 19th Century.

[10] It depicts six migrants travelling through extreme climates in the Sonoran Desert to reach Devil's Highway in an attempt to cross the Mexico – United States border.

[19] He makes note of incitive politicians and craven television commentators, and views it as "a ball of confusion" in the chorus line,[16] "I thought I had built upon a solid rock / But it’s just a Humpty Dumpty World".

[9] Composed as a corrido,[22] the song is about wounded soldiers returning home for Christmas,[28] with dismal lyrics set incongruously to an upbeat Mexican melody.

"[19] "Lord Tell Me Why" is a gospel song with a rolling funk groove,[10] sung from the perspective of a lower class white man who has become disillusioned with the American dream.

[6] The single's cover artwork, a piece called Nuthin' to See Here, Keep on Movin'!, was designed by visual artist Vincent Valdez, a frequent collaborator with Cooder.

[14] In the opinion of PopMatters critic Philip Majorins, the record would not have a significant impact because of the public's predominantly commercial tastes and a "cynical" cultural climate, but concluded, "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down could have tremendous cathartic power for [those] who are aware of history and its knack for repeating itself.

"[24] At the end of 2011, Uncut named Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down the year's 20th best album,[44] while Robert Christgau ranked it number 37 on his list for The Barnes & Noble Review.