Esther, the latest effort from Brooklyn duo Welcome Wagon is as much about homecoming as it is about making peace withand a home inuncertainty. The project had its beginnings in the summer of 2017, when the family took a two-month sabbatical to California. In reflecting upon that time, Pastor Vito Aiuto says It felt like we had been changed, and so to go home was going to be alright. Shortly after returning to Brooklyn, he found himself holding his guitar and allowing his fingers to play a few notes that just feltright. Then the pandemic hit, and Vitos strumming, lyrics, and thoughts became the soundtrack of the familys lockdown lives. Though Monique had given up painting a decade prior, she felt an urge to go home as well, to reconnect with her artistic identity and her midwestern family. She began using pieces from a collection of her late grandmother Esthers treasures to create large-scale collages, beautiful, evocative, and almost haunting in their pastiche of the past.

Esther was born out of this wellspring of creativity and homecoming, exploring the profound knowing and equally profound mystery in both family and faith. In Esther, the questioning is the destination, and it is one where peace can be found and homeand artcan be made. Theres a salve there. There is music. There are moments of grace, large and small. Welcome.

SIDE A

1 Isaiah, California 4:03

2 Bethlehem, a Noble City 3:37

3 Knocking on the Door of Love 3:23

4 Have Mercy on Us 3:33

5 Consolation Blues 4:03

SIDE B

6 Matthew 7:7 2:56

7 I Know You Know 4:31

8 Noble Tree 4:10

9 Lebanon 4:05

10 Nunc Dimittis 3:17