Rodney Crowell's album, which will be released in 2025, takes its title from a seemingly banal stretch of four-lane asphalt road that leads deep into Louisiana. It's the road he and producer Tyler Bryant drive to reach the remote studio where they recorded these songs. They hauled a truckload of equipment on a two-day trip that ended in swamps. On the way, Crowell looked for the route they were taking: Airline Highway. It is the southernmost section of Highway 61, also known as the Blues Highway or Great River Road, and follows the Mississippi River from Minnesota all the way down to New Orleans. Crowell knows this part of the country very well. He grew up in eastern Houston, just a few hours west of the state line, and as a young man he took wild forays through Louisiana to drink, drink or experience mostly live music. Airline Highway is an album full of old, lasting loves, whether it's a favorite song or a loved one to remember. Songs like "Sometime Thang" and "Rainy Days in California" (the latter with Lukas Nelson) toast old romances and encounters with different women in California or Louisiana: falling in love, going through hard times, growing apart until they become "that quiet voice on your phone", to quote a devastating line on "Taking Flight", which he co-wrote with Ashley McBryde and with whom he also performs. Some of them are fictional, Crowell explains, but they all contain a kernel of truth. "Basically, there are many more years behind me than ahead of me. I'm in my seventieth decade of life and glad that I'm still looking forward to certain things I want to do, but a lot of things worth talking about are behind me." Crowell is looking forward to making more music with musicians he really loves, among other things. I'm just in love with this experience. I've worked with great people in the past, but I've looked too far ahead. I wanted the music we were making a name for me, so I wasn't quite with them. My ego was in play. But now my ego seems to have finally evaporated. Now it's all about the work and what a blessing it is to be able to do it. The work really gives me food at the moment."