New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Emmy-Award winner and unlikely viral sensation
Leslie Jordan has announced his debut album Company's Comin', out April 2 via Platoon. Inspired by his weekly "Sunday Mornin' Hymn Singin'" live stream, the album finds Jordan performing southern gospel hymns with a slew of special guests including
Tanya Tucker, TJ Osborne (Brothers Osborne),
Travis Howard and Katie Pruitt, with more surprise guests to be announced. The announcement comes with the first single, "Angel Band" feat. Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, and the launch of his Apple
Music Country show Hunker Down
Radio with
Leslie Jordan, premiering Sunday, February 28.
"Brandi Carlile deserves to be accompanied by more than a single band of angels," says Jordan, "not only for being a singular artist of our time but also for living an exemplary life full of love and devotion to everyone she meets."
Company's Comin' offers raw, electrifying takes on traditional hymns and brand new originals written just for the occasion, with a playful mix of righteous gospel, classic country, vintage soul and Americana/roots.
Leslie Jordan performs each song like he's singing on the front porch with an old friend, calling out between lines and radiating a joy so infectious that each of the album's special guests can't help but reciprocate. Co-produced by Nashville songwriters/multi-instrumentalists
Travis Howard (Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley) and
Danny Myrick (Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean) with a crew of the city's finest players, Jordan's levity and feel-good humor is balanced with some seriously impressive musicianship. Company's Comin' is a bold and gleeful collection all about love and trust, hope and faith, consolation and community, delivered by an artist coming full circle on his own personal journey of self-discovery and acceptance.
"Singing these songs, it felt like I was recapturing the joy of what this music meant to me as a kid," says Jordan, "but without all the baggage. When I was growing up, I wanted so badly to be a good Christian, but I knew that the church would never accept me for who I was. It's liberating now to come back to these hymns, completely at peace with myself, and sing without any hint of the guilt or shame I felt in my youth."
Raised Southern Baptist in East Tennessee,
Leslie Jordan is most known for his breakout role as Beverley
Leslie on the iconic sitcom Will and Grace. His larger-than-life personality and instantly recognizable southern drawl have captured fans around the world, but it was not until he joined social media that we were introduced to another side of him. In 2020, Jordan's hilariously relatable slice-of-life videos on Instagram went viral and his popularity skyrocketed, as he racked up more than five million followers in a matter of months. As the pandemic continued, Jordan found solace in the music from his youth, and with a little encouragement and accompaniment from Howard, he began performing the songs on social media.
"My dear friend
Travis Howard and I would get together on Sundays to sing these old hymns just because we loved them," explains Jordan. "Somewhere along the way, my business partner, Mike Lotus, took a real interest in what we were doing and started looking up and learning about every old Baptist hymn he could find. I think he realized, like we did, that the songs held something brilliant about the human condition and were a deep comfort to anyone who heard them, religious or not. He started posting our performances online, and the response was just incredible."
In addition to releasing his debut album,
Leslie Jordan is currently starring in the new FOX sitcom Call Me Kat and just announced his new book How Y'all Doing?, an unmissable essay collection with entertaining stories about the odd, funny, and unforgettable events in his life.
