According to Rob Bowman's liner notes for the 2000 reissue, The Band has been viewed as a concept album, with the songs focusing on people, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana.

[2] Thus, the songs on this album draw on historic themes for "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and "Jawbone" (which was composed in the unusual 6/4 time signature).

After unsuccessfully attempting sessions at a studio in New York, the Band set up shop in the pool house of a home rented by the group in the Hollywood Hills located at 8850 Evanview Drive in Los Angeles, California.

According to Robbie Robertson, the location was chosen to give the songs a Basement Tapes–like feel in what was termed "a clubhouse concept".

[4] The last song to be recorded at the pool house was "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," as The Band had to leave to perform for three nights at Winterland in San Francisco.

Afterwards, they recorded the final three songs to finish the album ("Up on Cripple Creek", "Whispering Pines" and "Jemima Surrender") at The Hit Factory in New York City, at the time operated by Jerry Ragavoy.

After several reissues on vinyl, cassette tape, and compact disc, the album was remastered and re-released with bonus tracks in 2000, in a process overseen by Robertson.

The original LP back cover quotes the opening lines from Shelton Brooks's 1917 composition "Darktown Strutters' Ball".

Robert Christgau, having been disappointed with the Band's debut, had expected to dislike the record and even planned a column for The Village Voice to "castigate" their follow-up.

On Metacritic, the expanded 50th anniversary edition of the album has an aggregate score of 96 out of 100, based on six reviews, a rating that the website defines as indicating "universal acclaim".