TY'S STORY
Ty England is Alive and Well and Livin’ the Dream and making the best music of his career. A career starting with a couple of college pals, country music hopefuls, who promise to stick together no matter who strikes gold first. 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 & Dance Halls, 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.”
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. My country music buddies and I took it from there”. 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 & Dance Halls, 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.
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. Thus the songs on Alive and 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 and Texas, including “Texans Hold ‘Em,” a swinging tribute to Texas women that topped the Texas music charts for eight consecutive weeks beginning in December 2006.
The Tulsa World described “Redneck Anthem,” the album’s debut single, as “…a lively tune celebrating the joys of pickup driving, sleeveless T-shirt wearing, NASCAR watching and longneck chugging.”
“’Redneck Anthem’ shows where I came from,” Ty says. “I really feel it when I sing a line like ‘…I’ll forever stand up for the red, white and blue.’ And I think a lot of citizens feel exactly the same way.”
Two songs on Alive and Well and Livin’ the Dream were contributed by one of Nashville’s 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.