In a 2014 interview with NPR, Clapton spoke about Cale's influence on his music:  Clapton, who toured with Delaney & Bonnie in 1969, recalled in the 2005 documentary "To Tulsa and Back", "Delaney Bramlett is the one that was responsible to get me singing. He was the one who turned me on to the Tulsa community. Bramlett produced my first solo album and "After Midnight" was on it, and those [Tulsa] players played on it. I mean, the first part of my solo career was really tailored on Cale's philosophy. I mean, "461 Ocean Boulevard" was my kind of homage to J.J." Despite their association in the public's mind, the pair had rarely socialized or played together over the years, but in 2004 Clapton invited Cale to perform at his Crossroads Festival in Dallas. Cale, who was coming off an eight-year hiatus with the release of "To Tulsa and Back", accepted, and it was during this period that Clapton asked him to produce his next album, which blossomed into a full-fledged collaboration. Cale wrote 11 of the 14 tracks on the album, with two cuts, "Any Way the Wind Blows" and "Don't Cry Sister", being re-recordings of songs that Cale recorded previously in the seventies. Vocally, the pair's singing styles are so symbiotic on the album that they are nearly indistinguishable, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine observing in his AllMusic review that the LP "reveals exactly how much Clapton learned from Cale's singing; their timbre and phrasing is nearly identical, to the point that it's frequently hard to discern who is singing when. Disconcerting this may be, but it's hardly bad, since it never feels like Clapton is copying Cale; instead, it shows their connection, that they're kindred spirits." Musically the tone is relaxed and casual, a mix of bluesy grooves and up-tempo boogies that play to the duo's strengths. The fiddle-driven "Dead End Road", the galloping "Any Way the Wind Blows", and the optimistic "Ride the River" exude the general vibe of camaraderie that permeates the recordings, while Clapton's "Three Little Girls" speaks to the bliss of domestic life. The Brownie McGee cover "The Sporting Life" and the seen-it-all minor blues "Hard to Thrill" (composed by Clapton and John Mayer) display the pair's tasteful guitar licks and vocals.