Released: October 21, 2003

Featuring: Oren Waters Phil Collins

Songwriter: Phil Collins

Producer: Phil Collins Mark Mancina

[Verse 1]
Everyone's invited
This is how we live
We're all here for each other
Happy to give

All we have, we share
And all of us we care
So come on!

[Chorus]
Welcome to our family time
Welcome to our brotherly time
We're happy givin' and takin' to the friends we're makin'
There's nothing we won't do!

Welcome to our family time
(Welcome into the family!)
Welcome to our happy-to-be-time
(We're so happy!)
This is our festival
You know and best of all
(Best of all)
We're here to share it all

[Verse 2]
There's a bond between us
Nobody can explain
Its a celebration of life
And seeing friends again
I'd be there for you
I know you'd be there for me too
So come on!

[Chorus]
Welcome to our family time
(Welcome to our family!)
Welcome to our brotherly time
(We're so happy!)
This is our festival
(Hey! Hey!)
You know and best of all
(Best of all)
We're here to share it all!

[Bridge]
Remembering loved ones departed
Someone dear to your heart
Finding love, planning a future
Telling stories and laughing with friends
Precious moments you'll never forget

[Bridge: Phil Collins]
This has to be the most beautiful
The most peaceful place I've ever been to
Its nothing like I've ever seen before
When I think how far I've come I can't believe it
Yet I see it
And then I see family
I see the way we used to be

[Chorus]
Come on!
Welcome to our family time
(Welcome into our family!)
Welcome to our brotherly time
(We're so happy!)
We're happy givin' and takin' to the friends we're makin' (We're so happy to be!)
There's nothing we won't do!
(Oh yeah!)

Welcome to our family time
(Welcome into our family!)
Welcome to our happy-to-be-time
(We're so happy!)
This is our festival
You know and best of all
(Hey! Hey!)
You're here to share it
We're here it share it all!

The Blind Boys Of Alabama

Since their formation, Blind Boys of Alabama (BBA) have made it their goal to “spiritually uplift audiences”. The gospel group has been inspirational to those with disabilities. In the words of one of the group’s blind members, Ricky McKinnie, “Our disabilities don’t have to be a handicap. It’s not about what you can’t do. It’s about what you do."

The group first sang together in glee club at the Alabama Institute for the Blind in Talledega, Alabama in 1944. They were all about age 9-10 then, and originally performed for WW2 soldiers at training camps in the south. The band joined the civil rights movement during the 1960s, performing at many benefits for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, but by the 1970s, soul music eclipsed gospel, and their popularity waned.

BBA started a resurgence at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville. In 1983, they appeared in the musical theater production “The Gospel at Colonus”, which eventually won Tony and Pulitzer Prize awards. That changed everything for BBA, and they now perform alongside more popular and secular artists.