In 1990 he explained in an interview, "In 1984 I was with a different record company, and it didn't seem to be working out too good, so I asked to get out of my contract, and that took a couple of years to shuffle the paper around.

It wasn't till I got to listening to the album that I noticed that I'd written a bunch of tunes in the last four or five years about towns, and places, and travellin' around.

"[5] He drafted many of the same session musicians who worked on his previous recordings, such as drummer Jim Keltner and keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and also enlisted guitarist James Burton and folk veteran (and fellow Okie) Hoyt Axton, who sings on "Lean on Me."

Travel-Log contains the bluesy, shuffling rock and roll fans would expected, although songs like "Hold On Baby" and "No Time" are harder-edged, with AllMusic's William Ruhlmann noting in his review, "Cale's first album in six years finds him taking a more aggressive stance in terms of tempos and playing, although he remains a man with a profound sense of the groove and, especially as a singer, a minimalist."

"End of the Line" has a jazzy, cocktail lounge after-hours vibe that recalls earlier Cale songs, "Call the Doctor" and "You've Got Me on So Bad."