"How to Grow a Woman from the Ground" takes influence from several musical genres, “drawing equally from traditional bluegrass, progressive acoustic, and singer-songwriter traditions”. One music critic called the album “roots oriented”. Bluegrass mandolin player Ronnie McCoury became the album’s official “bluegrass guru” to make sure that there was “someone who could make sure we didn’t do anything clichéd or trite”. When discussing the album’s musical style, Chris Thile said that “All in all, "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground" is a bluegrass record. There are definitely some musical things that are out of the ordinary, but it sounds like a bluegrass record to me.” Much of Thile's work on the album was inspired by his divorce, and Thile said that he could relate to the title of the album, a Tom Brosseau song. Thile said that he "got my ass kicked by the last relationship I was in. This girl just left. It created a pretty serious complex for me. I’ve always been able to talk to girls, but I’m scared of them. I just could relate to it. Like, man if I could just grow one, that would take care of a lot of problems." 