The first time around, Robison admits that she "cooped up and wrote" as an outlet for her heartbreak. She sent the songs that would become the band's debut to her sister, who urged her to record them.

"Court Yard Hounds is really a product of Martie and I wanting to continue to play together and create a new sound and a new path," Robison told Radio.com during week of release (July 16). "We really are trying to push each other out of our comfort zone. When Dixie Chicks started I was 16 and she was 19. I think when you do one band for so long and you're so successful with something, you can get very comfortable and you're not necessarily pushing yourself to do new things. For us, this band is a way for us to not only play and create and write more outside of that, but it's a way for us to try new things, which is the ultimate for any artist."

For the new album, the country-folk duo pushed itself lyrically by inventing a character named Amelita. Writing all but one of the album's songs themselves, the sisters drew from their own experiences while speaking through the fictional point of view of Amelita. "The World Smiles," for example, was written about Robison's daughter; while "The Road You Take" proved to be a crucial, albeit difficult, song through recording.