TY HERNDON BIO

"It was time for me to make the album I always wanted to make. If that’s walking out on a limb and picking the songs myself, then so be it. If you know the music is right and it feels good, you have to go with it."

That’s Ty Herndon talking about Steam the fourth album of his celebrated, hit-laden career and a landmark effort that brings together the Ty we know from tender ballads such as "What Mattered Most" and "Living in a Moment" with the energetic stage performer who routinely rocks the house with his fiery stage presence and muscular musical attack.

And you surely won’t sit still when you’re listening to "Steam."

Kicking off with the upbeat swing of "Lookin’ For the Good Life" and rolling into the guitar-drenched rock of the title track — another Herndon smash hit that preceded the release of the album — "Steam" is upbeat and exuberant, bouncy and gritty, lively AND lusty. When Ty sings "There’s fire in your fingertips/Flames in your touch" in the chorus of the title track, he could just as easily be referring about his performance throughout the album as he is the unspecified woman to whom the song is directed.

"I wanted to create an album that you just put in your car and you drive," he explains. "It doesn’t have to be about anything deep. It’s about feel-good music."

This is no accident, of course, but rather the result of careful planning and acting on a creative course Ty has been thinking about for some time. "I’ve been a dreamer my whole life," he explains. "I’ll sit around and think about something; ‘That’d be cool.’

I’m trying to stop dreaming so much and making reality come true."

The path to Steam started with Ty’s selection of producers on this album — Anthony Martin, Jim Cotton and particularly Joe Scaife, who’s worked with one of Ty’s all-time favorites, K.T. Oslin. Before starting work on the album, they came on the road to see Ty perform and concurred that what they saw whipping up a fury on stage had not been adequately represented on record.

But more than that, they sensed an attitude that Ty projected in concert that also had to be captured on "Steam." "This album needed to be confident, sexy and cool," Ty explains. So he and the producers began searching for songs that would serve that purpose, with Ty taking a greater role then he ever has in selecting the songs for the album — including the buoyant "In a New York Second," the rootsy " That’s What I Call Love" and the full fury of "A Love Like That."

The litmus test for each of the 10 tunes on Steam was whether they worked in front of an audience; in fact, Ty road-tested each of them before committing them to the album. And he also recorded a demo with his road band so that the studio musicians who worked on the album would better understand the feel he was looking for on each track.

One of them actually has a long history with Ty. He’s been performing brassy, bloozy "You Can Leave Your Hat On" — a Randy Newman song popularized by Joe Cocker — for seven years, and it’s a fan favorite at his shows. His record company and fan club have received stacks of mall pleading with him to put the song on a record. And since Ty is the kind of guy who refers to his fans as "friends," he couldn’t help but be moved by the groundswell — further honoring his friends by making it "by fans request" on the album cover.

"The last two albums it didn’t fit," he explains. "You’ve got to have a common thread that at least makes a little bit of sense. And since this album has songs like ‘Lookin’ For the Good Life,’ ‘Steam,’ ‘I’ve Been Looking For a Love Like That’ — very grooving, fun, confident songs, it finally made sense. I said ‘Yes, we’ll do this song.’"

Do not for a second think that Ty has abandoned his emotional side, however. Accenting Steam’s buoyant feel are gentle, reflective numbers such as "I Can’t Do it All," "No Mercy’ and "Pray For Me," the latter of which mines the spirituality that Ty learned as a youth in Alabama, being raised in and around the church. Then there’s "Putting the Brakes" on time, a smooth, rolling song fattened by swelling organ and spiced by twangy pedal steel that bemoans the too-fast pace of life ("We can’t take the time to breathe") and calls for a return a time when we would "stop to watch the grass grow" or "sip an iced tea from the back porch swing."

All of this makes Steam a culmination of Ty’s career to this point and the first step towards the future. It comes from a solid foundation, of course — three albums that have sold more than 1.5 million copies and three No. 1 hits ("It Must Be Love," "What Mattered Most, " "Living in a Moment"), which have made him a leading force in country music during the mid- and late- ‘90s. And as we’ve already established, his reputation has only been enhanced by his powerhouse live shows.

With Steam however, Ty feels that he’s ready to take things even a notch or two higher; to that end, he’s decided to look as good as he sounds, starting an exercise regime through which he’s dropped 25 pounds and added some noticeable muscle mass for an appearance that complements the brawny sound of Steam.

"I think I’ve grown up a lot," says Ty, who’s been singing and entertaining since he was seven years old. "I’ve developed confidence in Ty, and as a person. I’ve learned to separate my career and my life, and because of that everything is centered physically, spiritually, mentally. I’m a better friend, a better husband, a better boss and a better musician. I’m just thinking real-clearly; I’m sure about what I want and where I’m going."

And Steam certainly makes you want to go along for the ride.