Commercial performance

For the Billboard charting week of March 1, 2014, Small Town Heroes was the No. 158 most sold album in the entirety of the United States via The Billboard 200 and it was the No. 3 album sold in the breaking-and-entry category by the Heatseekers Albums. In addition, the album was the No. 29 most sold Independent Albums, and it was the No. 24 most sold Top Tastemaker Albums. It also sold enough copies to attain No. 41 on the Top Rock Albums chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.9/10[2]
Metacritic	80/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
The Guardian	[5]
The Irish Times	[6]
Mojo	[7]
The Observer	[8]
Paste	8.0/10[9]
Pitchfork	7.8/10[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
Uncut	9/10[13]

Small Town Heroes mostly received a positive reception from music critics upon release. At Metacritic, the album holds a score of an 80 out of 100 based upon 15 selected independent ratings and reviews, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.^[3]

At AllMusic, James Christopher Monger rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, writing that "Throughout it all Segarra struts her stuff without the slightest bit of arrogance (most of the arrangements are spare, but never willfully so), offering up a confident, yet ultimately amiable set of millennial-informed, urban crafted, Woody Guthrie-inspired, contemporary hobo-folk anthems that play fast and loose with genre tropes without losing the essence that makes them universal."^[4] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, stating that "Segarra's supple, intimate vocals are about more than conjuring a musical past [...] she clearly wants to shape the future, too."^[12]

At Paste, Eric R. Danton rated the album an eight out of ten, saying that the songs "encompass a broad swath of a timeless America, like old Carter Family tunes existing in the peaks and troughs of AM radio waves rolling endlessly over the miles."^[9] PopMatters' Eric Risch rated the album an eight out of ten, affirming that the album "is a collection of songs that speak from and for the heart of America’s fringe, calling them both to task and arms" on which Segarra "has found a home and sense of being for her voice – a voice capable and deserving of a population larger than the album’s title."^[14]

In his review for Pitchfork, Stephen M. Deusner rated the album a seven-point-eight out of ten, asserting that "With Small Town Heroes, Segarra proves herself one of the most compelling stylists in a folk revival full of suspicious acts either too beholden to tradition or too uncritical to make much of it."^[10]