The Walking in Between is the first album release under Ben Rector's own label, Aptly Named Recordings, in association with the brand-management company ROAR.

[2] Rector founded the label for utility reasons; he needed an entity to release music under.

[3] Staff that worked alongside Rector for the album included co-founder of ROAR Bernie Cahill, booking agent Jeff Krones from the Creative Artists Agency, and Jim Merlis of Big Hassle for publicity.

[2] The album was produced by Jamie Kenney and Charlie Peacock, with additional work from Rector.

[5] Having formed his own record label and finding an increasing level of success, particularly in his recent years of touring, he found the experience overwhelming.

Although he originally expected to find true satisfaction with himself in success, he instead found it in the "ordinary", such as spending time with his friends or his wife Hillary.

[6] The themes of the album was shaped around the title, derived from the song "I Like You": "Life is not the mountaintops, it’s the walking in between."

He described it as a "marriage of accessibility and craft, a record that’s pleasant to listen to and can be enjoyed at face value, but that also has depth and solid foundation if you dig any deeper musically or lyrically.

[7] He was inspired to write the song by a comedic Twitter account that requested to buy the album with a non-monetary payment, such as high-fives, and Rector replied yes "as long as he can pay his mortgage" with them.

[15] Rector's voice was lauded,[16][17] and considered to be "crystalline quality" by Atlanta Music Guide's Rosie Judd.

[18] Judd praised "Sailboat" for its escapism and Chelsea Gammon of The MBU Timeline appreciated it for its honesty.

[34] All the proceeds from The Walking in Between were donated to build a well in Zambia via World Vision International.