Troubadour is a 1976 album by J. J. Cale, his fourth studio album since his debut in 1972. Eric Clapton covered the song "Cocaine" on his 1977 album Slowhand, turning it into one of his biggest hits.
Recording
Troubadour was produced by Audie Ashworth, who produced Cale's first three studio albums. It sees Cale introducing new instruments to his sound, such as synthesizer on "Ride Me High", with William Ruhlmann of AllMusic noting, "Producer Audie Ashworth introduced some different instruments, notably vibes and what sound like horns, for a slightly altered sound on Troubadour. But J.J. Cale's albums are so steeped in his introspective style that they become interchangeable. If you like one of them, chances are you'll want to have them all." Several noted musicians play on the album, including Ken Buttrey, Buddy Emmons, and Reggie Young. In the 2004 documentary To Tulsa and Back, Cale recalled, "I wrote 'Cocaine', and I'm a big fan of Mose Allison...So I had written the song in a Mose Allison bag, kind of cocktail jazz kind of swing...And Audie said, 'That's really a good song, John, but you oughta make that a little more rock and roll, a little more commercial.' I said, 'Great, man.' So I went back and recut it again as the thing you heard." The song's meaning is ambiguous, although Eric Clapton describes it as an anti-drug song. He has called the song "quite cleverly anti-cocaine", noting: Although "Cocaine" would be a major hit for Clapton in 1977, the first single released by Cale from Troubadour in 1976 was the restless "Travelin' Light" with "Hey Baby" as the B-side. Critics from the music website Alltime Records reviewed the recording: "'Travelin' Light', with its funky James Burton–style guitar that Jimmy Page tried to copy on "The Crunge", along with great xylophones to fill out the sound – it moves and cooks and rolls and rocks and has just an absolutely earthy quality". The song was released as a part of various compilation albums, including 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of J.J. Cale in 2002, The Ultimate Collection in 2004 and Classic Album Selection in 2013. Clapton later covered "Travelin' Light" for his 2001 studio album Reptile. "Travelin' Light" was also recorded by Widespread Panic for their album Space Wrangler in 1988. Cale's own version of "Travelin' Light" was played to awaken the crews of the Atlantis Space Shuttle and International Space Station preceding their spacewalk early on Friday May 21, 2010.
Track listing
All songs written by J. J. Cale, except "I'm a Gypsy Man", by Sonny Curtis.
