Tell us a little bit about each of the songs on Steam:

Looking For The Good Life

(Mac McAnally)

"I’ve been a Mac McAnally fan for pretty much all of my singing career, he writes such great songs and being a Muscle Shoals guy it’s just amazing the songs that he’s written. Looking For The Good Life the minute I saw the writer I knew I’d love the song. This one is almost like a ‘70s rock number that we open the album with. It makes a statement and sets the pace for this record like ‘Hey guys, if you are going to play this CD get ready to feel some emotions and have some fun’ and all I can say is ‘Keep on looking for the good life’."

(Lewis Anderson/Bob Regan)

"At a time when the fans and radio and the industry is saying ‘Give us something different’ we answered the call by cutting a song called ‘Steam’. That’s my first single from my forthcoming album also called Steam. To tell you truth the song scared me to death when I first heard it because I thought ‘This is a really big departure for Ty Herndon’ but I got into the studio and what I found out is this is really a lot like our live shows. We do a lot of songs like this live and the fans really love it. And I really wanted to capture some of that energy on this record anyway. The musicians did a really great job on this song that just rocks my world. The fans just love it. It’s my highest debuting song I’ve ever had on radio. So, man, what else can you ask for?"

(Jon McElroy/Ned McElroy)

"’Puttin’ The Brakes On Time’ has a nickname: We call it the ‘Iced Tea Song’ and I give credit to Miss Peggy Herndon for that, my mom. She heard the demo and absolutely loved the song and for a week after that she kept telling me to play it for people and she’d say ‘When are you going to cut that Iced Tea song?’ I thought it was pretty cute and we should have named it that on the album but I think the writers might have gotten a little bit made at me about that. It’s early in the CD because it’s such a feel good song. I already have the video on it in my head which is just floating down the river on an innertube and seeing all these wonderful love scenes going on the riverbank."

(Chuck Jones/Tom Shapiro)

"It almost didn’t make the album. I call this The Little Song That Could. For once in my life I was wrong about a demo. I heard it and said ‘I don’t think this is a song for me’ And my producers Joe Scaife, Jim Cotton and Anthony Martin really pursued me on this song. They said, ‘Look, you really need to do this’. I wasn’t too stubborn on this and I went in and cut the song and it’ll probably be a single. It turned out to be one of my favorite songs on this CD."

(Dennis Morgan/Todd Cerney/Stephen Allen Davis)

"I love ‘No Mercy’, it’s probably my second favorite song on the CD. The song was written by Dennis Morgan, Steve Davis and Todd Cerney. The song came along late in the project right when we were looking for one more song. I just love the message in it. Right when a relationship is about to break up and they realize they still love each other and the passion brings it all back together. And there’s nothing left to be said but ‘Love me like there’s no mercy’. I love the message in that and I look forward to it being out there on the radio."

In A New York Second

(Jim Daddario/Greg Barnhill)

"In A New York Second was not the original name of this song. I’ve been doing it live for the last couple of years. The original title was ‘Love Came Alive’ but we ended up with a lot of titles on the album with the word love in it so I wanted to change the name ‘In A New York Second’. Now that I did I think the writers were a little confused. I like the title now, it stands out on the back of the record and says what the song is about. A lot of fans really like this song. I tried to cut it the last couple of albums but just didn’t hook it but I think we did this time. It’s one of my favorite songs on the CD. Makes you want to just get in the car and drive really fast!"

(Donny Orton/Steve Dean)

"That’s What I Call Love" was one of the first songs I cut for this project. I cut it early on and I really wanted to get somebody like Martina McBride or Trisha Yearwood to sing the song with me. The good news is they said yes but our schedules just didn’t work out for it…story of my life. So, we cut the song anyway just me singing. I think it’s a great message. You love somebody so much that nothing else matters is pretty much what this one says."

"When I first heard ‘Pray For Me’ it brought a lot of the very spiritual thing that lives in me. Most people that know me know that I have to do an album that represents where I am in my life. This particular album represents a lot of happiness, a lot of Ty Herndon being very centered and ready to kick back and sing and have some fun. But I can’t do an album without something spiritual on it and this has such a strong message. I changed the first lyric in the song….’There was this old guy that lived up the street from us/He always had a bottle in left hand and an old Bible in his right’ and the original lyric was ‘He had bottle in his left hand/And a cigarette in his right.’ Which I had no problem singing that lyric and thanks to Rob Crosby and Allen Shamblin they had no problem changing it to an old Bible. I just had such pictures of that old guy battling his old disease plus his love for God….just the struggle that we all go through with that sometimes I’ve been right in the middle of that. The song became a very strong message for me that I wanted to give the fans and the people that buy this record because I think they would get a lot of it about not judging people so harshly when you see them for the first time."

(Marc Beeson/Don Pfrimmer)

"You cannot help but sing that song when you hear it. I promise you, you will be singing it for weeks to come once you hear it. It’s such a great song. This is my favorite song on the CD, I’ll go on record saying that. It was the second song I cut. Written by Don Pfrimmer and Marc Beeson, these guys wrote a great song. I have to thank Byron Gallimore for bringing me that song because it’s from his publishing company and he’s one of my past producers. It’s one of those songs that you want to get in your car and hit repeat. It makes you feel really great. I think all of us in our life want to find that love, when you find the right one, when you find your soul mate, you just take a deep breath, you breath and go ‘I’ve been looking for a love like that’…So that’s what really turns me on about this song."

(By The Fan’s Request)

(Randy Newman)

"Sometimes when you are on the road and you hear something 50 million times from the fans, you have to listen and I didn’t listen the last couple of albums. There’s a song called "You Can Leave Your Hat" written by the ever popular Mr. Randy Newman that I really, really insisted on never cutting because I didn’t want to put a song on the album that the critics would tear me apart for cutting. So, I thought about it…and I know the record label had been getting all kinds of mail and calls for Ty Herndon to cut this song because it is such a big part of our show. So, I gave in and we gave it its own character and it has a life of its own. It’s different from the two versions by Tom Jones and Joe Cocker - which are great versions - but I didn’t want to be compared to those guys. So, I put on the back of the CD "By The Fans Request" so that everybody would know that it was simply for them."