JJ Cale & Eric Clapton - The Road to Escondido (Rusty Red & Sky Blue Vinyl)

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Rusty Red & Sky Blue Vinyl - 180 Gram - Enhanced Edition (20th Anniversary)
Release Date Nov 20, 2026
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Pre-order Release Date: Nov 20, 2026
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Product details

  • Label Surfdog Records
  • Format 2 LP
  • Format details Rusty Red & Sky Blue Vinyl - 180 Gram - Enhanced Edition (20th Anniversary)
  • Media 2 x Vinyl
  • Album release date 2006
  • This pressing Nov 20, 2026
  • Region US
  • Genres Rock
  • UPC 820233593755
Releases Nov 20, 2026

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180 Gram Rusty Red & Sky Blue Vinyl, Enhanced Edition

Two 180-gram LPs, one rusty red and one sky blue, issued by Bushbranch/Surfdog Records for the album's twentieth anniversary. An Enhanced Edition banner sits above the original Escondido cover photograph. Three previously unreleased songs from the original sessions, three live recordings from Live in San Diego and new liner notes extend the fourteen-song album across four sides.

J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton recorded The Road to Escondido in Los Angeles in August 2005, and Duck/Reprise released it in 2006. The two had circled one another for decades. Clapton heard Cale's 1966 Liberty single "Slow Motion" in the late sixties, took its B-side "After Midnight" to radio in 1970, and later cut "Cocaine." They worked together properly after Clapton's 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, where Clapton asked Cale to produce a record for him and the two ended up making one between them. Escondido is a city in San Diego County near Cale's home at the time; the road of the title is Valley Center Road, which runs between the two places.

Cale and Clapton produced the album with Simon Climie. Alan Douglas recorded and mixed it, Mick Guzauski mixed, and Bob Ludwig mastered at Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine. Cale wrote all but three of the fourteen songs: "Sporting Life Blues" is Brownie McGhee's, "Hard to Thrill" a Clapton and John Mayer co-write, and "Three Little Girls" Clapton's.

The sessions carried a long guest list - Derek Trucks, Albert Lee, Doyle Bramhall II, John Mayer, Taj Mahal on harmonica, Christine Lakeland, Pino Palladino, Nathan East, Willie Weeks, Steve Jordan and Abe Laboriel Jr. among them. They also hold Billy Preston's final recordings, on Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Hammond organ. Preston died in June 2006 and the album is dedicated jointly to him and to Brian Roylance. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2008.

The added material sits on sides C and D. "Wrong No More," "I Got To Find My Baby" and "Roll On" come from the original sessions; "Roll On" features Preston and Mayer and was issued as this edition's first single, with a music video. The three live performances - "Who Am I Telling You?," "Anyway The Wind Blows" and "Don't Cry Sister" - are drawn from Live in San Diego.

Tracklist

Disc 1 (Rusty Red) — Side A

  1. Danger
  2. Heads in Georgia
  3. Missing Person
  4. When This War Is Over
  5. Sporting Life Blues

Disc 1 (Rusty Red) — Side B

  1. Dead End Road
  2. It's Easy
  3. Hard to Thrill
  4. Anyway the Wind Blows
  5. Three Little Girls

Disc 2 (Sky Blue) — Side C

  1. Don't Cry Sister
  2. Last Will and Testament
  3. Who Am I Telling You?
  4. Ride the River
  5. Wrong No More (Bonus Track)

Disc 2 (Sky Blue) — Side D

  1. I Got To Find My Baby (Bonus Track)
  2. Roll On (Bonus Track)
  3. Who Am I Telling You? (Live in San Diego)
  4. Anyway The Wind Blows (Live in San Diego)
  5. Don't Cry Sister (Live in San Diego)

UPC: 820233593755
Label: Surfdog Records
Release Date: 11.20.26
Format: Vinyl