Welcome Home. A cordial greeting; the name of a remote homestead; the title of a 1978 album. In this 2nd Capitol Records venture, Carole King opens herself with revealing liner notes and family photos to accompany a collection of ten songs called Welcome Home. Miss King shares like never before, details of her communal life space in the mountains of Idaho, close to nature. Musically, Miss King is joined by Navarro and Rick Evers in weaving together this array of tunes she produced with Norm Kinney.

Love abounds in the lyrics and upbeat melodies.

This love is visually presented in more than a dozen photos of the Welcome Home ranch and family. Here we are invited to relax in the pools of a mountain stream after a day of homesteading, kite flying and horseback riding. All this in the pristine western landscape that Brooklyn born King now calls home. An essay accompanying the album gives insight into the genesis of songs, the artists and the Welcome Home ranch itself.

Love for the ‘art of music’ itself is on full display in “Ride The Music” “Sunbird” (penned with Rick Evers) and “Disco Tech” (written with Navarro) a proclaimed R&B tune with the likes of an identity crisis. The funky, collaborative, “Venusian Diamond” in which “every Beatle lick we could think of” was added, is in tribute to the Fab Four. There is hope that they may one day, return the compliment.

Miss King’s love of life shines through in the hopeful “Morning Sun” (“And the morning sun comes shining through my window, and it’s good to be alive…) and “Ride The Music” (It’s a miracle to just be alive. Come on, come on, come on, ride the music!) While the song “Changes” laments the loss of friendship, Miss King’s optimism ultimately persist with the reminder, “if we can love, it all transcends - -- we’ll live our lives through changes.” Punctuating this sentiment is the solemn announcement of Rick Evers’ passing on March 21, 1978 at the age of 31. “May Rick now and forever be at peace.”

A spirited, “Everybody’s Got The Spirit” and a contemplative “Welcome Home” complete the picture of what it is to be in the skin of an accomplished, middle aged, rockin’ mama, choosing life in the primitive outback of America during in the late 1970s!