Homecoming

It would be hard to name song that captures post-hippie California dreaming better than the massive hit “Ventura Highway” from this 1972 album. The tune’s breezy folk-pop frames a conversation between an old man and a boy who dreams of leaving his Southern state for sunny California, where nights are “stronger than moonshine.” It’s a very believable paean to nostalgia. Much of this album (America's second) is in a similar vein: rich with a kind of laid-back Crosby, Stills & Nash feel that unfurls like a mellow Topanga Canyon morning. Indeed, “Only in Your Heart” sounds like Graham Nash, while David Crosby’s influence is all over “Saturn Nights.” The banjo-peppered “Don’t Cross the River” fits right in with the era’s country-rock of Poco and New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the poppy “California Revisited” is the closest thing here to a straight-up rock ’n’ roll tune. The soothing cover of John Martyn’s terminally pretty love song “Head and Heart” is a nice addition to the trio’s fetching songcraft and harmonizing.