On the heels of several striking single releases, today country provocateur Coleman Jennings announces his forthcoming debut album Lead You Home out via Big Loud Texas / Mercury Records. The new collection, produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson), is set for May 8 and includes the playful “Good While It Lasted,” out today.
Featuring 10 riveting country-folk tracks – all written solo (save for one tip of the cap to outside influence) – Lead You Home exudes originality; an exercise in artistic abandon, and in-the-moment inspiration. Captured in a stream of creative consciousness, nearly half of the set’s songs were at least partially penned on the spot in Cobb’s Savannah, Georgia studio, taking Cobb’s well-documented affinity for live recording to its ultimate end. Jennings would rarely have a full song to start with – often just a fragment, or a guitar riff he liked. But with Cobb at the controls and a tight band of like-minded creative outlaws, they would finish it by feel and record it then and there. The process both speaks to Jennings’ musical ethos and captures the country-folk spirit like nothing else.
“Sometimes you feel as if you don’t write the songs – it’s more like they’re being gifted to you because you’ve been open enough to receive them,” Jennings proclaims. On creating the album, he shares, “a lot of it genuinely feels like being a conduit for the universe, for God, and trying not to care. It was extremely improvisational and, in the moment, like ‘Let’s just have fun.’”
The album features previously released “Flyin’,” a testament to Jennings “carving out a lane that reveres tradition while remaining unafraid to blur its edges” (Country Central). It also includes his first label release “Head Spinning” and the ’70s-style harmony rich “Jamie” named one of Holler‘s “Best New Country Songs.”
In today’s new song “Good While It Lasted,” Jennings toasts to a love that burned hot but faded fast:
It was good while it lasted
Guess I’ll be seein’ ya never
Goodbye to heartaches and laughter
Hello to the world
Cause it was good while we had each other
I’m a little glad that it’s up and over
Coleman will hit the road mid-April supporting Benjamin Tod and The Incline Six, making stops in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona. In July, he will support Charles Wesley Godwin on The Christian Name Tour for select dates. For more information or tickets, please visit coleman-jennings.com.
Lead You Home Tracklist
- Ride On
- Head Spinning
- Jamie
- Flyin’
- Marianaville
- In The West
- Mary Rae
- Good While It Lasted
- First Born Home
- I Will Lead You Home
All songs written by Coleman Jennings; except “I Will Lead You Home” interpolation from “The Road Home” by Steven Paul
All songs produced by Dave Cobb
Coleman Jennings Tour Dates
April 16 – Ozark Music Hall – Fayetteville, AR+
April 17 – Cain’s Ballroom – Tulsa, OK+
April 19 – Longhorn Ballroom – Dallas, TX+
April 20 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX+
April 21 – Emos Austin – Austin, TX+
April 23 – La Rosa – Tucson, AZ+
July 11 – UP District Festival Field – Fargo, ND>
July 14 – The District – Sioux Falls, SD>
July 18 – Majestic Valley Arena – Kalispell, MT^
+ Supporting Benjamin Tod and the Inline Six
> Supporting Charles Wesley Godwin
^ Under The Big Sky Official After Party
With a hypnotic vibrato made to cut through the haze of modern life, and an old-school dedication to Western twang, Coleman Jennings can seem like a conduit to a different time – or even, a different spiritual plane. But as the country provocateur and Big Loud Texas / Mercury Records singer-songwriter says, his music is no echo of the past. More like a fierce statement of originality, crafted to stand out… and shake you to your core. Never afraid to call out the dull conventionality of commercial pop, the Texas native is a student of music with inspirations like Townes Van Zandt, The Eagles, Blaze Foley, John Hartford and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Diving deep into guitar while in high school, the gritty, unvarnished realism of roots poet Blaze Foley sparked an obsession with the art of country music and stoked an anti-establishment fire which still burns. Working with GRAMMY Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson), Jennings raises his distinctive voice for all to hear on his forthcoming debut album Lead You Home, set for May 8.
