El Capitan is Will Johnson's 7th studio album, released less than a year after Wire Mountain. While this is a collection of songs written on the road, they're given a polished studio treatment, albeit a bit more subdued and restrained than Wire Mountain.

El Capitan is Johnson's second album with the carefully-curated Austin label Keeled Scales, but his third recorded with Britton Beisenherz at his Austin studio Ramble Creek Recording.