6 Weeks On, 46 Off: J.J. Cale's Got it Made

"ALL MY records are kind of in a demo state," says the elusive J.J. Cale, typically self-effacing, in the L.A. office of BMG Records one late afternoon. We're talking about Travel Log, his first record in many years — and the manner by which the U.K. Silvertone label, headed by Brit industry legend Andrew Lauder, ended up releasing it. Lauder, he says, wanted to release a new Cale album; Cale himself had a batch of songs he wanted Lauder to issue before recording anything else new.