Songfacts®:

• This aching and epic country number explores our perception and ownership of responsibility through the prism of a soldier being discharged from service. "I think it's an allegory for the consequences of all of our choices," Cass McCombs reflected to Uncut magazine. "And of the migration of the human soul, to get heavy about it."
  
  "We all have choices, and we're all responsible for ourselves and our surroundings," he continued. "There's a great responsibility with the choices we make, and it's just another narrative to contemplate the seriousness of these choices. I think there's a tendency to feel like we're victimized by our surroundings, But I don't think so. I think we have a lot more autonomy than we allow ourselves to realize."
• The backing vocalists are:
  
  Country Music Hall of Famer Wynonna Judd
  
  Wynonna Judd's husband, multi-instrumentalist Cactus Moser. He is a member of Wynonna & the Big Noise, his wife's band.
  
  American violinist and composer Charles Burnham. He also played on the Billie Joe Armstrong / Norah Jones Foreverly album and Cassandra Wilson's Coming Forth by Day.
• Moser played lap steel guitar and Burnham fiddle and mandolin. The other musicians are:
  
  Charlotte Greve: tenor saxophone
  Frank LoCrasto: keyboards
  Kassa Overall: drums
  Josh Krumbly: upright bass
• Cass McCombs recorded "Unproud Warrior" for Heartmind. It is one of five tracks on the album produced by Shahzad Ismaily, a largely self-taught composer and musician who has also worked with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and Laura Veirs.