Leslie Jordan’s ‘The Agonist’ Is a Redemption Story Decades in the Making

Leslie Jordan’s ‘The Agonist’ Is a Redemption Story Decades in the Making

For Leslie Jordan, the story didn’t start with a song—it started with a cardboard box. Inside were decades of forgotten words, penned by a man she barely knew. Her grandfather, who left her mother as a child and died without much of a legacy, had left behind a trove of journals, poems and scribbled thoughts. It was the kind of thing most families might quietly file away. Jordan turned it into The Agonist, her first solo album since stepping away…