Songfacts®:

• This bittersweet tune represents to Civil Wars member Joy Williams, "The ache of monogamy." She explained: "This isn't an 'I'm leaving you' song. It's a vulnerable confession of 'I don't want to leave. I want to work on this - with you.'"
  
  "Having said that," she continued, "someone once told me a story about long-term relationships: to think of them as a continent to explore. I could spend a lifetime backpacking through Africa, and I would still never know all there is to know about that continent. To stay the course, to stay intentional, to stay curious and connected - that's the heart of it. But it's so easy to lose track of the trail, to get tired, to want to give up, or to want a new adventure. It can be so easy to lose sight of the goodness and mystery within the person sitting right in front of you. That continent idea inspires me, and makes the ache when it comes hurt a little less. To know that it happens to all of us. What I'm realizing now is that sometimes the 'same old same old' can actually be rich, worthwhile and a great adventure."
• The Civil Wars brought together two very talented musicians - Joy Williams and John Paul White - who had yet to break through on their own. "John Paul White is just a monster talent and everybody in town [Nashville] knew it, but he never quite put it all together," Chris Lindsey, who wrote their song "Poison & Wine" with the duo, said on the Songfacts Podcast. "Somehow Joy came in and added something to him that just made it all work. She had been making records on her own in the Christian world, but when they came together it was magic."
  
  The magic didn't last. Their 2011 debut album, Barton Hollow, was adored by critics and earned them a substantial following that included Taylor Swift, and early adopter. But their artistic differences drove a wedge between them when they started making their second album in 2012. During the sessions, they went on tour but their famous chemistry was gone. They called it off without finishing the tour and completed the album under duress, with producer Charlie Peacock keeping it together. They never played together again and appeared together only to accept a Grammy for "Safe And Sound," a song they wrote with Swift.
  
  Barton Hollow they released independently, but their second (self-titled) album, which contains "Same Old Same Old," was issued on Columbia, which knowing there would be no tour to support it, put their promotional muscle behind the launch. It debuted at #1 but quickly dropped off.