This is the official MySpace site for Triple T Recording Artist Ty England.
**NEW!!!**
Get your copy of the just released Ty England CD "Alive And Well And Livin' The Dream"! Click on the following link to go to the Triple T Records label site and order yours today! [Also available--signature apparell!]
Ty England
Alive & Well and Livin the Dream
Theres a breath of fresh country air blowing in from the plains of Oklahoma where Ty England is Alive & Well and Livin the Dream and making the best music of his career. It has been a career straight out of Central Casting, starting with a couple of college pals, country music hopefuls, who promise to stick together no matter who first inks a recording contract. One of those guys is Garth Brooks, destined to become the fastest-selling solo artist in history. The other is Ty England, a singer and guitar player who hit the concert road with Garth and became an instant fan favorite.
After several years on Garth's history-making tour, Ty signed with RCA and made two albums, Ty England and Two Ways to Fall. His signature top-5 hit, Should've Asked Her Faster remains a hotly requested number, while Entertainment Weekly called his debut album a remarkably poised performance and gave it an A rating. When he moved to Capitol Records with Highways & Dancehalls, produced by none other than his good friend Garth Brooks, noted music critic Rich Kienzle pointed to Ty's traditionalist integrity and called the record magnificent. USA Today wrote, England delivers these songs in an understated manner that makes him sound resigned to heartbreak and wary of happiness, and Garth Brooks, his college roommate, offers comfortably traditional production.
Ty has retained his solid fan base by staying with what brought him to the dance -- bona fide country music. I grew up on it, Ty reflects. My grandpa taught me to play the old country songs on guitar, and it was through him I started listening to guys like Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. His concert tours consistently reflect those roots and get rave reviews, such as the one in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that pointed to the ease with which he vocally moves from ballads to honky tonk to Western swing.with real conviction.
In the years since Highways & Dancehalls, Ty has been playing fairs, festivals and clubs throughout the U.S. He's also been honing his songwriting skills, and his latest album, Alive & Well and Livin the Dream, contains a wealth of self-penned material that he''s road tested on audiences across the country.
Prior to the past few years, Ty's claim to songwriting fame was Every Time That It Rains, which he co-wrote with his friend Garth Brooks on the superstars debut album. It was like taking a short course in songwriting, Ty says. Working with Garth taught me a lot about coming up with a song idea, exploring it and then following it through.
Like many artists before him, Ty's creative spirit soared when he left Nashville and returned to his roots. Being away from the business side of the music industry left him time to concentrate on the music part. He started collaborating with fellow Oklahomans Tim Condict and Tim Russell, and audience response to their songs was overwhelming. The songs on Alive & Well and Livin the Dream range from soulful to rough and ready. The album reflects the wide-open spaces and free-loving spirit of Oklahoma, starting with the albums debut single. The Tulsa World described Redneck Anthem as a lively tune celebrating the joys of pickup driving, sleeveless T-shirt wearing, NASCAR watching and longneck chugging.
Tim Condict had started working on Redneck Anthem years back, Ty recalls. Along with my bass player, Tim Russell, we worked the song over, made the bridge into a chorus, wrote a last verse, and suddenly, it worked.
When Ty tested Redneck Anthem on his USO Tour to Korea in the summer of 2005 the crowd went wild. It tested strong back in the U.S. too. Though it's on an independent label, Triple T/Quarterback Records, Redneck Anthem beat out songs by current chart-topping artists on major labels during on-air radio tests. On the Big 98 WSIX in Nashville, the song generated 100% positive calls from listeners, something that station hadn't experienced before during its evening Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down feature. Clearly, the fans had spoken.
Redneck Anthem shows where I came from, Ty says. I really feel it when I sing a line like Ill forever stand up for the red, white and blue. And I think a lot of citizens feel exactly the same way.
It's the same belief system that caused Ty to sign on for the USO Tour to Korea. There are so many troops that never get any entertainers because the areas are too remote, Ty explains. Those are the servicemen and women we want to reach, to let them know how much we appreciate their sacrifices.
Other songs on Alive & Well and Livin the Dream present an even broader picture of Tys country roots. Livin the Dream is a testament to the sportsman life, as is Tim Condicts It Must Be Colorado, with its lines now the winter snows have melted and the water fills the streams. They get down their fishin poles and live their winter dreams. Ty and his father have spent many hours hunting -- from the Oklahoma hills to the Colorado Rocky Mountains -- and the lessons he learned about gun safety and responsibility helped provide inspiration for other songs on Alive & Well.
Stick to Your Guns was one of the first songs the team of Ty England and Tim Russell wrote. Tim lost his dad a few years back, Ty reflects. And the two of us started talking about how our fathers taught us to be men. We realized that our first time feeling grown up was not when our fathers trusted us with cars, but when we got our first rifles. We both intensely felt the responsibility of owning those guns. I am a life member of the National Rifle Association, and I appreciate that in addition to standing up for the citizens right to protect themselves and their families, they make every effort to teach people of all ages with firearm safety programs. We wrote The NRA Song in one night. People who aren't familiar with the NRA don't realize that the organization does a lot more than protect our second amendment rights. I've never met a member of the NRA who wasn't an extremely cautious hunter. My father taught me, and now I'm passing the lessons along to my sons Tyler, Levi and Matt.
Two songs on Alive & Well and Livin the Dream were contributed by one of Nashvilles top writers, Tony Arata. The big ballad, Nothing But Love, shows off Ty's vocal finesse, and Love Is Stronger is a radio-ready modern country classic. I've been carrying around a tape of Nothing But Love for ten years, Ty says. When I was signed to both RCA and Capitol, I asked to record it, but that never happened. This time I wanted to make sure the song was included because its a personal favorite. And one of the songs that always gets the biggest response when I play my shows is Tony's Love Is Stronger, so it was a natural for the project.
A classic honky-tonker, The Perfect Girl was written while Ty was working on his album. We wrote the first verse one day while we were in the studio, then worked on the melody the next, Ty recalls. Then we were kind of stuck. We even cut a music track to help us finish writing the rest of the lyrics but it still wasn't coming together. Then about three days later I woke up about four in the morning and knew how the song had to go. It was amazing I just sat straight up in bed and thought, Oh yeah! That's it!
Ty's skill with a lyric is nowhere more evident than in the highly visual Club Paradise, which describes a guys outing to Las Vegas. Me and the boys made a trip out to Vegas, to see how far our wages could take us. Every day we hang onto a night that won't end and the rules that don't break, we know they're gonna bend. From the hotel bar to the casino floor, one paycheck gone and they're still wantin more. And the song actually was born in Las Vegas. I was out in Vegas playing a show some years back, Ty says, and a couple of other brainiacs and I decided to go out on the town. The only thing that happened was that I got an idea for a song. It took me two years to finish, but when it finally came together I felt really good about it.
Ty has enjoyed the last few years spent with his family, which includes his four children--Aspen, Tyler, Levi and Matt. He found that the road back to Oklahoma led to an even greater appreciation of the road his career has followed, and a clearer vision of where it will lead. The truth is, it was starting to get a little old when people kept saying, we wondered what happened to you and where the heck have you been? Ty says. Suffice it to say I've been in Oklahoma, Alive & Well and Livin the Dream!
March/2006
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