"[6] Basic tracks for three of the album's titles, "Come Down in Time", "Country Comfort" and "Burn Down the Mission", were recorded at Trident during the sessions for the previous LP, Elton John, with overdubs completed for Tumbleweed Connection.

An early version of "Madman Across the Water", featuring Mick Ronson on electric guitar, was also recorded during the sessions for the album.

In addition to several studio players who also performed on John's previous self-titled second album, several tracks feature backing musicians from the band Hookfoot, who were also his DJM Records label mates.

Hookfoot guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope had also appeared on John's Empty Sky album.

Photographer Ian Digby Ovens[10] captured John (seated to the right in the photo but appearing to the left on the front cover, shown above) and Taupin (standing to the left, on the back cover) in front of the late-nineteenth-century station, to represent the album's rural Americana concept despite the English location.

Reviewing for Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote: "1971’s Tumbleweed Connection needs no improvement; it is one of the best country-rock albums ever written by London cowboys."

Robert Hillburn wrote for The Los Angeles Times: "Tumbleweed Connection is that near-perfect album that artists often spend a whole career trying to produce.

Music: "A step up from the slightly more overtly commercial Elton John... Tumbleweed is beautifully recorded and filled with very fine songs... Bordering on classic status."

Ostensibly the story is that of a poor community oppressed by a rich and powerful force, and the narrator, driven by some sort of revelation, has decided to take direct action to remedy the situation.

Finally, the struggle has ended and the music returns to its initial understated form, reflecting the eventual defeat of the hero.

In the premiere episode of Elvis Costello's show Spectacle, John cited Laura Nyro as an influence on, among other things, the unusual structure and rhythm changes of this song in particular.