The Family Announce Debut Album Delusions of Grandeur

Photo Credit: Claire Nichols

Today, The Family — an extraordinary new band featuring acclaimed singer-songwriters Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, and Bay Simpson — announce the release of their long-awaited debut album, *Delusions of Grandeur*, on July 31 via Big Black Cow Records. Beyond their personal accolades, there’s something else that bonds this quartet: they’re family. Dylan is James’ son, and Bay is Angela’s son. James and Angela met when the boys were still young, and they grew up together as musicians and as a family.

Recorded at legendary Muscle Shoals’ FAME Studios during the pandemic, and its release delayed due to busy individual careers, *Delusions of Grandeur* channels the golden-age spirit of ’70s folk-rock, and stands as a testament to a talented family of musicians who overcame personal struggles and found reconciliation through their love of music and each other. Pre-order **HERE**: [https://bigblackcowrecords.com/the-family-merchandise/](https://bigblackcowrecords.com/the-family-merchandise/)

Their first single, “The End,” released today, is as taut as it is timeless, soulful folk rock with lush vocal harmonies, jazzy chord progressions, and an irresistible groove that could easily be found on a lost Eagles or Steely Dan album. The lyrics, sung by James LeBlanc, predict a dark storm ahead.

“To me the song is about nihilism. People’s fascination with post-apocalyptic hysteria,” stated James, adding, “Tapping into that whole ‘staring into the abyss, kind of what does it all mean’ mentality wasn’t hard to do because that’s kind of where we come from as people. I hope it resonates with a lot of people. This song represents what we’re about as a family and artists. It offers personal commentaries about the various states of mind of people from all walks of life.”

Listen to the song HERE: [https://bigblackcowrecords.com/thefamily-streaming/]

YouTube link for song HERE: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojMmMSqMPzE

Watch live music video HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kie83UByxMA

Dylan and James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, and Bay Simpson are acclaimed musicians from the famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama area who have each carved out successful careers of their own. Dylan LeBlanc is an internationally renowned singer-songwriter whose work has been praised by MOJO and Uncut, with NPR saying his songs unfold with “the wariness of a social and spiritual outsider who broods his way to graceful defiance”; James is a lifelong songwriter and in-demand studio musician whose songs have been recorded by Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, and Sara Evans; Angela won the 2007 edition of *Nashville Star* and her song, “I Ain’t Easy to Love,” was a hit for Candi Staton and has been covered by John Paul White and Jason Isbell; and Bay, touted by Americana Highways as “a solo artist to be reckoned with,” recently appeared as an artist on *The Voice* and performs with the country-rock band Outlaw Apostles.

Recorded in 2020, at the behest of Rodney Hall, the co-owner and president of FAME Publishing and House of Fame Music, the quartet headed to FAME Studios. There were no expectations about what would come from these sessions. At a time when everything else stopped, the quartet put any differences aside and poured everything they had — not just into the music, but into each other. The notion of joining together in a formal capacity never occurred to them until the pandemic. Locked down with minimal musical prospects on the horizon at the time, the quartet mulled their next moves. Then Dylan had a show in nearby Huntsville and asked his family members if they’d like to join him. This was the first time they’d performed together publicly, and the idea of forming a band took shape.

Over the years, Dylan, Angela, and James shared difficult individual battles with substances and alcohol, a complex issue that affected the family as a whole. They had also grown distant as a family over the years, due to the complications of touring schedules, individual family lives, and the reduced time they had to spend together, despite their best efforts.

“Making this album brought us closer together in ways we never expected,” they shared in a statement as a family and as a band. “We all came into it carrying different scars, different experiences, and different stories of survival, but through the music we found healing in each other. These songs became more than just a record — they became proof that broken things can still become beautiful when people choose love, honesty, and growth. For us, this album represents redemption, family, and second chances. It’s the sound of people who have walked through darkness together and somehow came out stronger on the other side. We’re grateful every day that we still get to sit in a room together, create music together, and share this life with one another. That’s something none of us take for granted anymore.”

Enlisting Spencer Coats to engineer and Brad Crisler to co-produce, each member brought ideas to the sessions, which served as a way to escape the torturous grind imposed by the pandemic. During the sessions, The Family forged a close bond that shaped the album they had always heard in their collective heads. “It is extremely fresh when I listen to it now,” Angela says of the album. “That's one of the things I think that kept us coming back to it through the years.”

Despite the overwhelming approval and support from friends who heard it, once the world started to reopen, The Family didn’t have any label interest in releasing the album. In January 2026, Dylan shared the brooding, melodic rocker “Pick Your Poison,” which features an infectious riff he wrote, on his Spotify account. Billed as Dylan LeBlanc, The Family, the song became one of his more popular songs. Hearing positive feedback from friends and fans reinforced the idea that the album needed to be heard.

Enter Jesse “Chunk” Walker, who is married to Dylan’s twin sister. A naval officer and an entrepreneur, Jesse found success with his online record store, Big Black Cow Records. Not long after the store took off, Jesse remembered that his family had recorded an album during the pandemic and proposed to release it himself. That endorsement and the subsequent excitement gave The Family the push they needed to take one more shot.

“So much of your life, you can sit around and just wait for someone to give you an opportunity, and you'll be waiting for a really long time,” James says. “So I was like, ‘Why don't we create the opportunity for ourselves?’ And Jesse was the arbiter behind that thought process.”

Nearly six years after its completion, the album is finally about to see the light of day. The Family willed this into existence, proving that the years of waiting weren’t wasted.

“We all have our individuality as artists,” Bay says. “And we all pursued the solo artist thing within our own things for all of our lives. We have our own thing, but we also have this really cool family connection. So when it comes together, it forms something really unique.”

“We're not relying on anybody but each other to make this happen,” Dylan says. “I'm all in because I genuinely love the music.”

Aiming to channel a bygone era with music that now mostly lives in record collections and memories, specifically a ’70s folk-rock sound, The Family rolls back the years to create an album that is fresh and true to their artistic identity. Specifically, songs like the hook-laden, melodic rocker “History of Things to Come,” which features Angela on vocals, and the Fleetwood Mac-esque, Bay-powered “Everybody Loves You Now,” which the quartet says is their favorite, stand out.

For The Family, the release of this album is just the beginning. They recently recorded seven new songs, along with a live album from their first live shows, which took place in May 2026. Through their FM radio warmth, Southern rock grit, and soulful roots, they share the collective sound of a family finding its way back to each other, and sounding great while doing it.

“We go through what any other family would go through,” Angela adds. “Then we get to share what we love, which is music, that's so freaking cool to me.”