HomeEF CountryTy Herndon - 'JACOB' review

Ty Herndon – ‘JACOB’ review

Grammy-nominated American country music artist Ty Herndon is back, with eleven honest and hopeful tracks on his ninth studio album ‘JACOB’ released with Pivotal Records.

And with every track my heart sinks and soars to the real moments that made Herndon, the uplifting lyrics, his authenticity, the ‘90s country revival and his incredible vocals.  

‘JACOB’ is Ty Herndon’s most mature album to date, with effortless vocals and a blissful musical arrangement across the insightful eleven songs. The album is named for the complex figure from the Bible who overcame personal challenges to follow in God’s way, a path Herndon has paved for others going through their own mental health and identity questions.   

Herndon was one of the brightest stars in Nashville upon his debut in 1995, releasing 17 singles and scoring three number ones, amid Gold certified albums, before, in his own lyrics, hitting the “fast lane to failure” in the early 2000s. He re-emerged in 2014 as the first major male country artist to come out as gay; he affirmed his identity with the magnificent House on Fire album in 2016, which charted just outside the top 40.  Herndon later founded Nashville’s annual Concert for Love and Acceptance and his Foundation For Love and Acceptance, in support of the LGBTQ+ community.  

In ‘JACOB’ Herndon pours his heart and authentic self into every song, every lyric. The upbeat lead track, ‘Til You Get There’ kicks off with a huge ‘90s sound, addictive hook and a peek into Ty’s enormous, generous personality, with lyrics like “every scar, every broken heart is exactly what you needed I swear/ but you won’t know it til you get there”.  

What appeals most about Ty Herndon’s ‘JACOB’ is that the experiences are at once individual and universal. We’re not listening to a woe-is-me-story, we’re listening to a heck of an album with mass appeal.  Get on it, country radio. 

A banjo and another ‘90s country legend, good buddy Terri Clark, turns up on the second track, a fun, upbeat, ‘Dents On A Chevy’ celebrating friendship and finding the right people in your life; ‘Say It For You’ features Wendy Moten; Shelly Fairchild, Emily West and Jamie Floyd join Herndon on later tracks. 

The tempo slows and Ty’s story darkens on ‘God Or The Gun’, echoing the sentiment of the lead track, which lyrically cuts through to the heart, ‘there was an angel making a phone call, the living room was where I got the miracle/God or the gun, took my hand off the trigger/Heaven said I wasn’t done’. Songs don’t get more real than this. 

The ballad ‘Fighting With Me’ welcomes a piano and steel guitar, and harmonies from Emily West, amplifying the honesty of Herndon fighting with himself and his 90s identity, “tired of fighting for how you see me/fighting for your attention…in a storyline that was never mine to begin with.”  

‘Standing In The Whiskey’, with the upbeat musical elements reminiscent of Garth’s Standing Outside The Fire, starts with a fiery banjo and arrow-honest lyrics, “the world saw the sinner as low as I could/I could taste the broken in the bottle I was holding/ and I paid more than you’ll ever know.” 

The piano-based ‘Lean In’, is a comforting and uplifting duet with angelic vocals from Jamie Floyd, who has co-written four of the songs with Herndon. Landslide, not that song, is a power ballad duet with Shelly Fairchild, featuring an excellent electric and steel guitar. 

‘JACOB’ closes with two faith-based tracks, ‘Halleluljah’ and ‘Damn Good Feeling’, that sum up feelings towards these 45 minutes of music; Ty’s grateful for his survival and we’re left with a damn good feeling by the end of these stories. 

Read our interview with Ty Herndon, that he did ahead of his CMA Fest 2022 performances recently.

Track list: 1. ‘Til You Get There 2. Dents on a Chevy 3. God or the Gun 4. Fighting With Me 5. Standing in the Whiskey 6. Lean In 7. Sleeping With a Stranger 8. Landslide 9. Say It For You 10. Hallelujah 11. Damn Good Feeling Record Label: Pivotal Records Release Date: 15th July Buy ‘JACOB’ now

[rwp-reviewer-rating-stars id=”0″]

Must Read

Advertisement