Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Recording dates are given differently: the infobox runs from summer 1996 to April 1998, with the first Austin sessions in February and March 1995, Saving Country Music says nearly three years, and Christgau says six years in progress overall. Jim Scott mixed it, though in Christgau's July 1998 Rolling Stone review Rick Rubin mixed all but one track. Christgau wrote that it achieves its perfection by being more imperfect.

Guitars came from Gurf Morlix, Buddy Miller, Charlie Sexton, Johnny Lee Schell and Bo Ramsey, with Steve Earle on acoustic guitar, harmonica and resonator, Roy Bittan on organ and accordion, and Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris singing harmony. Of the thirteen songs, "Can't Let Go" is by Randy Weeks, and "Still I Long for Your Kiss" is a co-write with Duane Jarvis. It was certified Gold in the United States and Silver in Britain. It topped the 1998 Pazz and Jop poll, and Rolling Stone placed it 304th, then 305th, on its 500 greatest albums lists in 2003 and 2012, and 97th or 98th in 2020, depending on which of its own pages you read. A deluxe edition adds a live disc recorded on July 11, 1998 at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia.