The album was recorded at Wave Lab Studios in Tucson, Arizona, except the beginning of "John Saw That Number", which was recorded in a stairwell at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern; and "At Last", which was tracked at Toronto's Iguana studio. Case is backed by several collaborators, including bandmates Jon Rauhouse and Tom V. Ray, as well as frequent collaborators The Sadies, Giant Sand's leader Howe Gelb, vocalist Kelly Hogan, Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, and Canadian cohorts Brian Connelly and Paul Rigby. Rachel Flotard of Seattle punk-pop combo Visqueen also guests, as does legendary multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson of The Band. The album was engineered by Craig Schumacher and Chris Schultz, and produced and mixed by Neko Case and Darryl Neudorf. It has sold 194,000 copies in the United States up to December 2008. The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Bonus Disc Version) was released November 6, 2007 which includes five additional songs. The original track listing was used for the Record Store Day 2015 re-release on red coloured vinyl.