tracks feature backing musicians from the band Hookfoot, who were also his DJM Records label mates. Hookfoot guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope had also appeared on John's Empty Sky album. No singles were released from the album in the US by either DJM or John's US distributor, Universal Records, but "Country Comfort" (b/w "Love Song") was released as a single in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Artwork The wraparound cover photo for the album was taken at Sheffield Park railway station in Sussex, approximately south of London on the Bluebell Railway. Photographer Ian Digby Ovens captured John (seated to the right in the photo but appearing to the left on the front cover, shown above) and Taupin (standing to the left, on the back cover) in front of the late-nineteenth-century station, to represent the album's rural Americana concept despite the English location. Additional photos were taken from the interior of a train on the line for the album liner notes and libretto. In August 2020, the Bluebell Railway announced that, to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, it had restored the station to look as it did when the cover photo was taken, giving people an opportunity to re-create the scene in their own photos. Reception The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and number five on the US Billboard 200 chart. In the US, it was certified gold in March 1971 and platinum in August 1998 by the RIAA. The album sold very quickly in the US, debuting at number 28 on Billbord's Top LPs, an unusually high debut for a new artist at the time, and reached its peak position in just four weeks. In 2012, Tumbleweed Connection was ranked number 458 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Critical reception Reviewing later for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Half of the songs don't follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best." Robert Christgau wrote in his 1981 Record Guide: "good melodies and bad Westerns on it. Why do people believe that these latter qualify as songpoems?" (Note: There's an earlier Christgau's review of the album, written in 1970 for The Village Voice). Reviewing for Rolling Stone (Deluxe