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Drag Queen and Singer-Songwriter Flamy Grant Releases Debut Christian Album Featuring Appearances from Semler, Jennifer Knapp, and Derek Webb

The crowd-funded independent record titled Bible Belt Baby arrives October 6 and spotlights faith, queerness, and recovery from religious trauma

SAN DIEGO, September 1, 2022 — In 1977, famed singer Amy Grant released her debut album and quickly became the undisputed queen of Christian music. Today, a different sort of queen is challenging ideas about who belongs in religious music by being the first drag performer to release a full-length Christian record. And she’s hoping the Grant name brings her luck.

Bible Belt Baby is the debut from drag queen Flamy Grant, whose soulful songs shine a spotlight on queerness, faith, and the trauma often endured by LGBTQ+ people born into religiously conservative communities. Featuring an impressive roster of guest artists including Semler — who last year became the first out queer artist to twice top the iTunes Christian charts — and Christian music veterans Jennifer Knapp and Derek Webb, Bible Belt Baby is available for digital download and streaming September 23.

Flamy Grant is the pandemic-born drag persona of 40-year-old singer-songwriter Matthew Blake (pronouns: they/them), who was born and raised in rural western North Carolina and now calls San Diego home. “I spent the first 28 years of my life hiding my queerness for fear it would alienate my family and community, so I’m a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to self-discovery” says Blake, who was raised evangelical. In the early days of the pandemic, Blake used their spare time to experiment with drag performance on the internet. “Drag gave me a single creative outlet for all of my favorite things — music, makeup, and shaking up the spiritual status quo.”

After a TikTok video went viral in which Blake gradually transforms into Flamy while sharing how being raised in the Bible Belt smothered early efforts to explore their identity, they were surprised to discover an audience ready for a sermonizing drag queen. Blake, who came out at the age of 28, spent two decades as a worship leader and church planter before pursuing this new digital drag ministry.

“I grew up exclusively listening to contemporary Christian music as a rule of our conservative household, and I was obsessed with female singers like Amy Grant, Suan Ashton, and Cindy Morgan. Because anything queer was strictly forbidden and ignored in our house, I didn’t have any awareness of drag or the ability to imagine myself following in my favorite performers’ footsteps. It’s been an unpredictable and long journey, but I’m finally living out the childhood dream I wasn’t even able to articulate at the time.”

It took years of wrestling with questions of faith and navigating church gatekeepers before learning to be comfortable in their own skin. “As Flamy, I finally know my place as an artist, which is to shine a spotlight on the queer spiritual journey. I’m here to celebrate the resilience and worthiness of LGBTQ+ people in the church and challenge the insipid and incorrect idea that we don’t belong in sacred spaces.”

Bible Belt Baby, which Blake crowdfunded on Kickstarter earlier this year, does just that. A quick overview of the track list — with song titles like “Desire of Your Heart,” “Holy Ground,” and “Esther, Ruth, and Rahab” — confirms the listener is in for a religious experience, but these holy rites are offered with a side sacrament of cheeky humor one might expect from a drag queen. In the album’s first single, “What Did You Drag Me Into?”, Flamy recounts her own divine calling:

I was baptized at the age of twelve
Under the water I came under a spell
I heard the Holy Ghost in the chlorine
She said, “Girl, you better go make a hell of a scene”

While there are appropriate moments of sass, there is also sincerity. Bible Belt Baby is a confessional singer-songwriter record that covers the ground between plaintive and powerful, blues and bombast. Produced by Ben Grace (Story & Tune, NBC’s Babble Bop!), the collection features guest spots from a wealth of artists at the heart of the conversation about inclusivity, or the lack thereof, in Christianity:

• Jennifer Knapp, one of the best-selling Christian artists from 1998-2001 who came out publicly a decade later, sings on the blues-rock anthem “I Am Not Ashamed.”

• Derek Webb, of the popular Christian folk/rock band Caedmon’s Call also known for his solo work critical of church hypocrisy, performs on the gospel-tinged closer “Good Day.”

• Semler, whose 2021 Preacher’s Kid was the first record by an out queer artist to reach number one on the iTunes Christian charts, lends their voice on a gentle, reimagined cover of Amy Grant’s 1997 single “Takes a Little Time.”

• Tennessee-based songwriter Adeem the Artist, whose 2021 album Cast Iron Pansexual was praised by Rolling Stone magazine for its “explorations of sexuality and gender expression that are equally clever and poignant,” provides an Appalachian infusion of vocals, banjo, and guitar on “Esther, Ruth, and Rahab.”

• TikTok creator, writer, and educator on issues of religious abuse @DonnellWrites shares a spoken word on the jazzy “Ones Like Us.”

Regarding her participation in the album, Jennifer Knapp says, “While the idea of a Christian drag artist may seem like a novelty — or even an obscenity — to some, there have long been progressive and inclusive Christian communities all around the world where queerness is celebrated. The end of industry gatekeepers keeping queer artists out of religious music is long overdue, and it’s an honor to contribute to this powerful record that gives a voice to communities many churches still try to silence and shun.”

“At its core,” says Blake, “this project is a rallying cry to anyone who has been oppressed or excluded by the culture of conformity in religious spaces. The deepest truth of the divine is you are worthy, you belong, and you deserve to be happy in the here and now. Singing that message in a bold lip and a big lash has been my way to salvation. I hope it does the same for others worn down from years of being told to check their sparkle at the church door.”

Bible Belt Baby is available to stream and download at digital stores on Thursday, October 6. The first single titled ”What Did You Drag Me Into?” and accompanying music video arrive Monday, September 12.

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