Most of the tracks were produced by Arif Mardin, with the exception of the two Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys covers, "Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)" and "Bubbles in My Beer," which were produced by Mardin and Jerry Wexler. In his book "Willie Nelson", Joe Nick Patoski notes the recording of the album "was sloppy and chaotic, technically and artistically uneven, with horns and strings occasionally bumping up against the musical core of Bee Spears, Paul English, Bobbie Nelson, Jimmy Day, and Willie...The music was more country than what was being played on the radio but somehow different. If there were slips and flubs, they stayed in." The album includes Johnny Bush's Whiskey River"., which would go on to be Nelson's perennial show opener. In his autobiography he remembers, "In 1972, Johnny Bush called me with part of a song he’d written with Paul Stroud. I took the song the way it was but adapted it to my style, which was more blues than rock." "Shotgun Willie" is also significant for containing "A Song for You," written by Leon Russell, a key figure in Nelson’s creative evolution during this period. The song would become a staple of Nelson’s live show and he would later say, "He knocked me out...I understood how his image – with his crazy stovepipe hat and dark aviator glasses – added to his mysterious allure. Beyond the mystery, though, I heard that his musical roots and mine were the same: Hank Williams, Bob Wills, country black blues..." Nelson would record the duet album "One for the Road" with Russell in 1979.