Rita Coolidge’s 18th solo album ‘Safe in the Arms of Time’ is a reaffirmation of her indomitable spirit and unquenchable creative thirst. “This is the best record I’ve ever done,” Rita declares. “I’m extremely proud of it.”

‘Safe in the Arms of Time’ marks Rita’s triumphant return to the songwriting that gave the world her shimmering (and still uncredited) “piano coda” to Derek & the Dominos' “Layla.” Three of the album’s 12 songs were co-written by Rita and draw inspiration from her personal journey. “I’ve written so many songs assuming a role like an actor, but this time I got to write from experience,” Rita says.

‘Safe in the Arms of Time’ is colored by Rita’s pivotal role in the Los Angeles singer-songwriter scene of the 1970s, where she made her bones as a top backup singer—that’s Rita on the refrains of Stephen Stills’s “Love the One You’re With” and Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight”—before embarking on a platinum-selling solo career.

“The idea was making an album that had the same appeal of my early records—to make a roots record about my own roots,” Rita says.

Rita traveled to Nashville and the studio of Keb’ Mo’ to write, with singer-songwriter Jill Colucci, two of the album’s most intimate songs, “Walking on Water” and “Naked All Night.” Duetting with the Grammy-winning bluesman on “Walking on Water” was a thrill for Rita, “I literally have every Keb’ Mo’ CD—I’ve been a fan for decades,” she says.

‘Safe in the Arms of Time’ reunited Rita with Graham Nash, her romantic and creative confidant during Nash’s Crosby, Stills & Nash days and one of Rita’s most cherished and enduring friendships. Nash and the journeyman L.A. session drummer Russ Kunkel had written “Doing Fine Without You” and offered it to Rita. “That was one of the first songs we chose. Russell and Graham had written that and thought of me, and I said, ‘I don’t know when I’m doing a record, can I put this on hold?” The song is among the album’s standouts.

In her subsequent career comprising five decades and millions of record sales, Rita captivated audiences with her signature hits “We’re All Alone,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “All Time High” and “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.” And in a remarkable eight-year romantic and artistic marriage for the ages, she and former husband Kris Kristofferson earned multiple Grammy Awards.

With ‘Safe in the Arms of Time’, Rita’s odyssey from the hills of rural Tennessee to the recording studios of Los Angeles and concert stages around the world has come full circle.