"A Boot And A Shoe" is produced by T Bone Burnett, and includes Phillips' distinct vocals and vintage guitar sound, plus piano vamps and string arrangements by Patrick Warren, electric bass by T Bone Burnett, and drums by Jim Keltner, Jay Belarose, and Carla Azar (Autolux). The New York Times said of Phillips that she possesses 'touches of Kurt Weill via Tom Waits, and of the Beatles via Elvis Costello, all turned inward,' and that she sings 'torch songs banked down to a low but persistent simmer, evading melodrama by keeping quiet.'