Highways & Heartaches came out on Epic in September 1982 (Epic FE 37996). Ricky Skaggs produced it, and it was recorded at Audio Media Recorders in Nashville. It reached number one on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Four singles came from it, and three of them went to number one on the country singles chart: “Heartbroke” in 1982, then “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could” and “Highway 40 Blues” in 1983.
“Heartbroke” is a Guy Clark song that Rodney Crowell had recorded on his 1980 album But What Will the Neighbors Think. “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could” was first recorded by Jim Eanes in 1959 under his own name; after Skaggs’s version became a hit, the credit was moved to the estate of Arthur Q. Smith and to Paul Jones. Larry Cordle wrote “Highway 40 Blues” about a state highway in Kentucky rather than the interstate through Nashville. The album also includes Bill Monroe’s “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’” and Rodney Crowell’s “One Way Rider.”
Skaggs plays guitar, mandolin and fiddle and sings lead. Bobby Hicks plays fiddle on several tracks, Jerry Douglas dobro, Buck White piano, and Béla Fleck banjo on “Highway 40 Blues.” Sharon White-Skaggs sings harmony on “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could” and other tracks.
Tracklist
- 1 Heartbroke 3:17
- 2 You've Got a Lover 3:57
- 3 Don't Think I'll Cry 2:38
- 4 Don’t Let Your Sweet Love Die alt version 3:58
- 5 Nothing Can Hurt You 4:44
- 6 I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could Source Recording 2:59
- 7 Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ alt version 3:16
- 8 Highway 40 blues Source Recording 3:08
- 9 Let's Love The Bad Times Away 2:45
- 10 One Way Rider 5:27
