The Milk-Eyed Mender

Newsom wrote every song except Three Little Babes, a traditional Appalachian song by Texas Gladden. The liner notes list a Lyon & Healy style 15 harp, a Wurlitzer electric piano, a harpsichord and a piano. Noah Georgeson, a bandmate from The Pleased, produced and recorded it, played guitar on two tracks and sang backing vocals on one. Emily Prince embroidered the cover and Alissa Anderson took the photographs.

Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy reviewed it on 17 March 2004, noting that Will Oldham had named Newsom as one of his favorite storytellers a month earlier. He described the music as avant-garde American music for the back porch. The album did not chart, though The New York Times reported more than 200,000 US sales. Pitchfork ranked it 47th among the albums of the 2000s, and also placed Peach, Plum, Pear at 197 and Sprout and the Bean at 229 on its songs list. The Sunday Times placed it 28th, Q 35th, Slant 83rd, Treble 88th and Under the Radar 162nd. NME named it the 12th best folk album of all time.

Swansea was covered by Bombay Bicycle Club on their 2010 album Flaws. Newsom reprised The Book of Right-On on The Roots' How I Got Over in 2010, where its refrain is the backbone of Right On, and Sarah Jarosz covered it in 2013. Sprout and the Bean was heard in the 2008 film The Strangers.