Acclaimed singer-songwriter and activist Chely Wright followed up her Joe Henry-produced comeback album I Am the Rain (2016) with the 2018 holiday EP Santa Will Find You which No Depression called the "warmest, most-family oriented" of recent holiday records. While recording the latter she also recorded five new songs which comprise the new EP Revival. Wright noted to Billboard that Revival is different than her previous releases: "One of the reasons I wanted to work with Dustin (Ransom) and Jeremy (Lister) is I knew that would take me to places I hadn't gone before. This is my 25th year of making records. It can be pretty tempting to go back to those old, comfortable, what-made-you-famous things. So I really pushed myself... to do things differently. We didn't recreate the wheel or our sonic landscape; I think people will hear something different but it also sounds like me - the best of both worlds."