Though Keys to the Highway couldn't live up to the massive commercial success of Diamonds and Dirt, in many ways it's a more subtle, personal album. The tone is set by “Soul Searchin’.” Even though the song is ostensibly about a man rediscovering a lost love from his youth, in a larger sense it's about Crowell’s rediscovery of himself. Keys to the Highway was written after the death of Crowell’s father, and in many ways it's about attaining the simplicity and security of family. It contains several beautifully acoustic songs, so spare and honest that they seem more like folk songs than country songs: “Many a Long and Lonesome Highway,” “Things I’d Wish I’d Say," and “Don’t Let Your Feet Slow You Down.” The theme of time and personal history come to bear on “The Faith Is Mine,” which offers a piece of Crowell’s most poignant philosophy: “I've seen my future look back on my heart/Don't know the ending, but I know where to start/My past is healin', it's alarmin' the fate/This time tomorrow, it could all be a race tumblin' by.”