SCREAMS WORLD MUSIC

Ty Herndon's Grammy nomination for his album, 'Journey On,' is pretty amazing when you consider he was all but ready to quit the music business right before he picked up his pen and started opening up his soul to write all the songs that make up the new record. Down on his luck, completely out of work and broke, Ty contemplated giving up music altogether before he decided to give it one last shot and really open up and express all he had been going through in the songs for 'Journey On.' The resulting project landed the artist his first-ever Grammy, and taught him a good lesson about perseverance and the power of never giving up.

"To tell you the truth, about two years ago I was as broke as a joke," Ty tells The Boot. "I had pretty much my spirit, that's what I was living on at the time. And it forced me into really getting really, really personal on this record. I was living in someone's guest house and really didn't know if I even wanted to do music anymore. So I took about a year living there and writing music, and I got my spirit back. And with a lot of great friends and God's help, last year was full of gigs and I'm working about 120 gigs this year, so me and Mama we're back in the fried chicken, we're good!"

For the first time in his career Ty penned the majority of the songs on his album, and because the songs are so intimate and personal to him, he's thrilled it's being recognized by his peers as outstanding work.

"To have a Grammy nomination for something that's so personal ... instead of a book, I wrote a record for this album, and it really is all about what I grew up with. It started out to be, I was really gonna do a gospel record, but what I found out when I started writing is I had a lot more to say, a lot more personal experience. So I think the category I'm nominated in is Southern Country Bluegrass Gospel Album and I was like, 'Gosh I didn't know I did all that! But it's pretty cool to have it be recognized."

Back during its release last June, Ty described the project as having "joy and heartbreak, worship and big love within the walls of this music." It has already received one nod during last year's Dove Awards when the song 'When We Fly,' received the Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year trophy.

Newly energized with a love for making music again, Ty is already working on his next project, his first all-country record in almost eight years, which, if goes according to plan, will be a birthday present to himself. "I haven't had a straight-up country album in a long time. So I'm writing with a lot of amazing writers right now and getting ready to record a new album, so I'm very excited about that. Hopefully it will be out in May, I'm shooting for May 2, my birthday."