Joan Shelley's fifth solo album, Like The River Loves The Sea was recorded at Greenhaus studios in Reykjavik, Iceland with Shelley and James Elkington serving as co-producers. The twelve songs were recorded primarily over five days, with Elkington and Nathan Salsburg standing in as the backing band. A pair of Icelandic sisters: Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir and Sigrún Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir added strings.

Shelley says of the collection, "Woven into the melodies and rhythms of these songs are fragments of the many musical traditions that comprise what we now call Kentucky music: Irish, British, and African to name a few. The best music would be a conversation with the divine that has seen all of it, or with the oldest trees that have witnessed the whole human story. These songs are partly that conversation, at times through the lens of lovers. They are also a longing cry born of all the dividing; a call across the slowly spreading ocean.

"Primarily, Like the River Loves the Sea is built as a haven for overstimulated heads in uncertain times," she adds. "The title (which comes from a song by Si Kahn) speaks of the inevitable and at times indifferent nature of love. Whether it be a physical place or an idea, everyone needs a place of comfort. One where we can look out again from that place of calm and see how to best act and to be in an uncertain world."