Turtles All the Way Down

Simpson wrote it, Dave Cobb produced, and High Top Mountain and Loose released it on April 8, 2014. The title alludes to the infinite-regress idea of turtles all the way down. He told NPR's Ann Powers on April 17, 2014 that the song is about giving your heart to love and treating everyone with compassion and respect no matter what you do or don't believe, and called the turtle a comedic image for a larger idea. He told American Songwriter that he is not really preaching anything, and that love is really the only thing that made him say, well yeah, that's pretty much all I need. Its lyrics reference Jesus, the Devil, Buddha and reptile aliens.

Graham Uhelski directed the video. Rolling Stone ranked it fourth on its 25 best country songs of 2014 and 142nd on its 2024 list of the 200 greatest country songs, and AllMusic's Thom Jurek called it a glorious cosmic cowboy song. He played it solo acoustic on NPR's Tiny Desk, published on August 30, 2014, and at the Beloit College commencement in Wisconsin on May 14, 2014, the day after the album's release, at the invitation of the college's president, turtles being the college's unofficial mascot. It has been used in FX's The Bridge, HBO's Watchmen, Reservation Dogs, the film Dog (2022) and Yellowstone. We found no setlist counts, covers or samples.