The 90’s are coming back in waves in the country music industry. Artist who were big then are returning to the scene by either releasing new music or re-releasing their own hits with a modern twist. American country artist Ty Herndon is one of many following this trend.

On Aug. 23 Herndon released his new album Got it Covered featuring 15 songs; all of which are remakes of his top hits.

Herndon fans notice a major difference in the first song What Mattered Most. The soft, slow ballad was initially released in 1995. Back then Herndon used she/her pronouns throughout the song. Now the song features he/him pronouns to better reflect who Herndon really is as a publicly gay country artist. Listeners were led to belive this love ballad was about a woman Herndon was in love with when in reality it was a man.

The next song on the album is I Need To be Loved Too Much. Like What Mattered Most, this is another slow ballad. In the song Herndon is told by his love interest that they don’t want a relationship with the opening “You say you love me a little, you say you want to stay friends/You say you don’t want no strings attached/No one on you to depend/You see love as a prison, I see love as a key/You think a little is more than enough/It’s not that way for me.” I feel as though we have all been there. Everyone at least once in their life has been on the rejection end of things where they learn that the one they love does not love them back to the same degree.

So Small is Herndon’s rendition of Carrie Underwood’s So Small. Herndon decided to record the song because of the significance it played on him. The chorus “Sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing/Is just a grain of sand/And what you’ve been out searching for forever/Is in your hands, is in your hands/And when you figure out love is all that matters after all/It sure makes everything else/Seem so small” really stikes a chord with me. It helps me realize that there are a lot of thing in life that has humans we fret about when they aren’t that big of a deal. That’s the human in us though. In Herndon’s music video for So Small he turns the song into an anthem for LGBTQ+ kids today.

A Man Holding On (to a Woman Letting Go) is another one of Herndon’s greatest hits. This ballad is about love through the stages of life. It start with young lovers then transitions into lost love. In the second verse the song talks about a father’s love and giving his daughter away to her husband.

This album was well thought out and put together. The hits Herndon chose to use showed his transition from hiding who he was into the man he truly is today. I enjoyed this album as it was a refreshing pop of todays themes with a softer 90’s sounds. 

4/5