Following the release and success of her fourth studio album, Blown Away (2012), Underwood began working on Storyteller in early 2014.

Met with mostly positive reviews from music critics, Storyteller became a commercial success and set multiple records upon its release.

[5] For this album, Underwood worked with frequent collaborators such as Hillary Lindsey, Ashley Gorley, Chris DeStefano, David Hodges, Brett James, and Mark Bright, although Underwood also worked with new collaborators such as Liz Rose, Zach Crowell, and Jay Joyce.

[8] Joyce produced the album's lead single "Smoke Break", which Underwood wrote with DeStefano and Lindsey.

On September 10, 2015, Underwood appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and also performed "Smoke Break".

It sold 23,000 copies and debuted at number 26 on Hot Country Songs chart for the week ending October 31, 2015.

All three singles were made available for download on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers with a pre-order of the full Storyteller album.

On August 12, 2016, it was confirmed that "Dirty Laundry" would be serviced as the fourth single in the United States and Canada, and was released to country radio on September 5, 2016.

Underwood began the Storyteller Tour: Stories in the Round on January 30, 2016, in Jacksonville, Florida to support the album.

[31] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the record "demands attention and it deserves it, too",[22] while The Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman called it Underwood's best album yet.

[32] Jewly Hight from Billboard wrote, "Unlike newer country acts who can sound like they’re merely co-starring with their own faddish production, Underwood commands the spotlight, balancing the well-established extremes of her on-stage persona -- Midwestern girl-next-door and imperious diva -- within these freshened-up aesthetic frames.

"[33] Robert Christgau wrote in Vice that the record has more "good tales" on it than Underwood's Greatest Hits album.

"[30] New York Times critic Jon Caramanica was less impressed, finding much of the songwriting devoid of "bite or pulp" while accusing Underwood of singing bombastically throughout the album.

"She largely picks songs that serve as launch platforms for her ballistic-missile voice," he wrote, "but they don’t cohere into a whole identity.

"[34] In Exclaim!, Stuart Henderson wrote that the record is "more than halfway boring," explaining that "it isn't uninspired or weakly performed.

[41] It held the number two position on the Billboard 200 in its second week, moving another 81,000 units, including over 73,000 album copies sold.