Country singer Ty Herndon was flying on top of the world — until he suddenly crashed. The top-charting artist had been forced into a sham marriage by his record label, and the pressures of the spotlight and hiding his sexuality led Herndon to a spiral of addiction. After being arrested for indecent exposure while on a three-day bender, Herndon found himself choosing between life and death. Last year’s album Jacob marked Herndon’s triumphant return to mainstream country and with the recent release of the deluxe version of the album, Herndon reminds us our stories don’t always end with a neat little bow.
Jacob charts Herndon’s journey from rock bottom to his truest, my loving self. That the album opens with “Love Me Anyway,” a take-down of the common phrase “I don’t care if you’re purple or green, I’ll still love you,” Herndon demands recognition and respect for his identity as a gay man living with addiction. It’s a bold intro to his come-back album and return to mainstream country.
That return is bolstered by “Dents on a Chevy” radio-friendly love song, Terri Clark’s duet adds an extra dimension of softness to a moment of respite in an album of defiance and a fierce will to live. The new deluxe album features a club-ready remix of the pair’s summery duet.
“God Or the Gun” is the emotional climax of the album, recounting Herndon’s decision not to take his own life. The additional take offered by the deluxe album, the “Divine Version,” is much more intimate, a story song rather than an anthem. Instead of catharsis, this version is more storytelling, a confession if you will.
Herndon chases that moment with “Standing in the Whiskey,” an anthem of shedding the things that shame you and the courage to embrace everything you used to be afraid of. The deluxe album’s “Double Shot Version” is in a major key, embracing how far the narrator has come. This is the key to the deluxe edition of Jacob: as focused a concept as the initial album was (one can imagine it being adapted into a musical), Herndon’s willingness to take another look at this painful and pivotal time shows that there is always more than one side to the story — and lessons to be taken from our most difficult moments.