In the 2002 memoir Shakey, Neil Young told biographer Jimmy McDonugh that Cale was one of his favourite guitarists of all time, comparing him to Jimi Hendrix.

Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton were also effusive in their praise for the Oklahoma troubadour, but Cale’s early 90s output left him at odds with the music industry and, to an extent, his own fans, which he acknowledged in an interview with Vintage Guitar: The last four albums, with me playing with the synthesizer, everybody hated.

[2]Always accustomed to doing things his own way, Cale handled nearly all the instrumentation on his previous album Guitar Man, recording in his home studio, but for To Tulsa and Back he opted to change his approach by regrouping with long-time producer Audie Ashworth, as he recalled to Dan Forte: A few years ago, before Audie passed away, I said, “I’ve been making synthesizer records; ain’t nobody likes ’em but me.

In his AllMusic review of To Tulsa and Back, Thom Jurek writes, “Cale steeps himself in technology and evokes the moods and frameworks of music that intersect with the blues or stand in opposition to them.

The blue collar “One Step” examines the struggles of the working class, while “Rio” recalls several of the songs on 1990’s Travel-Log, such as “Tijuana” and “New Orleans,” and pays tribute to the Brazilian city.

It featured interviews with Cale, wife Christine Lakeland, Eric Clapton, and other family and band members as well as behind the scenes tour footage.

AllMusic gives the album four out of five stars, with Thom Jurek singling out the closing track for praise: “The album closes with Cale playing a lone banjo on ‘Another Song,’ a mournful Appalachian ballad that feels like it comes from out of the heart of the Dust Bowl, it's full of ghosts and shadows and aches with the weight and displacement of longing as history.” All songs written by J. J. Cale.