HEADLINE Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’
TAGS: The Family, Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, Bay Simpson, Claire Nichols, Rodney Hall, Spencer Coats, Brad Crisler, Jesse Walker, Candi Staton, John Paul White, Jason Isbell, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, FAME Studios, Big Black Cow Records,
BLOG POST Four acclaimed Muscle Shoals songwriters waited six years to let this record out, and now it’s coming. The Family, made up of Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, and Bay Simpson, announce their debut album ‘Delusions of Grandeur,’ due July 31 via Big Black Cow Records. The connection runs deeper than the music. Dylan is James’ son, Bay is Angela’s son, and James and Angela raised the boys together as a family of musicians.
They cut the album at the legendary FAME Studios in 2020, at the urging of FAME’s Rodney Hall, with no expectations about what the sessions would become. Lockdown gave them the time, and a show in Huntsville gave them their first taste of playing together publicly. The idea of a band took shape from there.
Lead single “The End,” out today, is taut and timeless, soulful folk rock built on lush harmonies, jazzy chord changes, and a groove that wouldn’t sound out of place on a lost Eagles or Steely Dan record. James sings lead and digs into darker territory. “To me the song is about nihilism. People’s fascination with post-apocalyptic hysteria,” he says, describing a “staring into the abyss” mentality that comes naturally to where the family comes from as people.
The road here wasn’t smooth. Dylan, Angela, and James each fought private battles with substances and alcohol, and the family had drifted apart over the years under the weight of touring schedules and separate lives. The record pulled them back together. “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,” they shared in a family statement, calling the album proof that broken things can still become beautiful.
With Spencer Coats engineering and Brad Crisler co-producing, each member brought ideas to FAME, and the sessions forged a bond that shaped the album they’d always heard in their heads. Once the world reopened, though, no label bit. Dylan kept the flame alive in January 2026 by sharing the riff-driven “Pick Your Poison” on Spotify, billed as Dylan LeBlanc, The Family, and it became one of his most popular tracks.
The final push came from Jesse “Chunk” Walker, a naval officer and entrepreneur married to Dylan’s twin sister, whose online store Big Black Cow Records gave the album a home. “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. “Why don’t we create the opportunity for ourselves?”
The album channels a ’70s folk-rock sound, full of FM radio warmth and Southern rock grit. The hook-laden “History of Things to Come” puts Angela up front, while the Fleetwood Mac-esque “Everybody Loves You Now,” powered by Bay, is the quartet’s own favorite. It’s a warm, lived-in collection that earns every bit of its golden-age comparison.
The album is only the start. The Family recently cut seven new songs plus a live album from their first shows in May 2026. “We go through what any other family would go through,” Angela says. “Then we get to share what we love, which is music, that’s so freaking cool to me.”