[1] Produced by John Pilla and recorded from January to March 1979 with Guthrie's touring band Shenandoah, the album consists of songs about mortality, spirituality, love, and the passing of time.

As he approached an age when he would find out whether or not he would develop the disease and similarly face an early death (he would not and remains alive and well several decades later), he spent much of his time in serious introspection searching meaning and a way forward.

[6] On July 20, Guthrie and his touring band Shenandoah performed a concert in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York, which was broadcast live in its entirety on WLIR-FM.

[7] The following night, July 21, they performed at the Dr. Pepper Music Festival at the Wollman Rink in Central Park in New York City—a concert that was broadcast live by WPLJ-FM to more than a million radio listeners.

[1] After establishing that it's "useless to be living without love", Guthrie closes the first side with "Epilogue", a "poignant baring of the soul by a man sure of his faith, if not his future, while at the same time at ease with his past".

[1] In this quiet dirge-like ballad, supported by electric piano and acoustic guitar, Guthrie has no regrets about his past as he explores his memories, these "stolen moments from the hourglass".

With his future uncertain, Guthrie can only place his faith in God, presented in the image of a "sparrow" (perhaps the Holy Spirit) in the final verse: The second side of Outlasting the Blues opens with the rollicking up-tempo "Telephone" about the absurd intrusion of technology (and strangers) in the singer's life.

Guthrie closes the album with Hoyt Axton's moderate country ballad "Evangeline", which revisits the theme of domesticity and water as a symbol of life and healing.

The cover of Outlasting the Blues has a black and white photo in sepia tone of Guthrie dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans, standing in profile, holding a saxophone, and looking out toward the camera.

In his review for Rolling Stone magazine, Dave Marsh wrote, "Guthrie finally resolves the tensions between folk and rock, meaning mostly that he has put together some tough music ... to complement some of his most unsettling songs ever".

[13] The music critic for the Christian Science Monitor wrote, "In a world of cloned Top 40 hits ... every song on this album has the unusual quality of sounding distinctive.

"[6] In his review for Rolling Stone magazine, Ken Tucker, while criticizing Shenandoah's "bar-band instrumental support", felt the album was a "small masterwork of writing and programming".

The problem isn't his religious overview, either ... Guthrie simply goes soft aesthetically at crucial moments, and although most of the material is creditable enough, only once [on "Epilogue"] is the enormous emotional potential of the project realized.