Exclusive: Trent Harmon Releases 'You Got 'Em All' Album Two Years After Winning 'American Idol'

Trent Harmon's freshman You Got 'Em All album is out on Friday, May 18. The 11-song record encompasses much that has happened in Harmon's life and career, since winning Season 15 of American Idol in 2016.

"When I started this process, I had a list of people that I thought deserved a tip of the hat that helped me get to this point, so each song is either a person or a group of people that wanted to dedicate a song to that helped me get here," Harmon tells PopCulture.com. "That's about the best way I could sum it up."

A little bit country, a little bit soul, a little bit R&B, You Got 'Em All shows Harmon's diverse upbringing and background, from his early years in Mississippi to his beginnings in music.

"I grew up in the South," Harmon explains. "I grew up close to Memphis. I gigged in Memphis a good bit. That was kind of the songs that resonated with me, is that muddy, kind of swampy, bluesy ballads of song. That's the kind of guitar I started learning first, and so naturally those were the songs that I felt came out of me when I started the writing process."

The 27-year-old was on Idol when Keith Urban was serving as a judge, along with Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick, Jr. But it was Urban who Harmon wanted to glean the most from, hoping to emulate his career after his time on American Idol.

"Although we didn't talk a lot off camera, I was the only contestant that was really going far in the competition that every opportunity I got to pick what song I wanted to sing – he picked up on it – I would always pick a country song," Harmon recounts. "You don't get to necessarily have the freedom of picking your song, but when I got to pick, he noticed, 'You're picking these deep-cut country songs. Is there something there?' I said, 'Man, I know the people that are voting for me back home, and these are songs that I sing to them at gigs, and I know they're going to vote for them.'

"I think he respected that as a songwriter and as someone who is an appreciator of old and good country music alike," Harmon continues. "So we've kind of had a connection about that since then."

Urban co-wrote a song, "Falling," on You Got 'Em All, one of three songs on the project that Harmon didn't write. Written by Urban along with Dallas Davidson and Brett James, Harmon originally sang the song on Idol, and released it right after he was crowned the winner. The only other two songs on You Got 'Em All that Harmon didn't co-write are "Hold On," written by Chris Stapleton and Jim Beavers, and "Chandelier," written by Sia Furler and Jesse Shatkin.

"I went to my publisher, who's also at Big Machine, I said, 'I would like to be able to control one thing for the next year and a half,'" says Harmon, explaining his desire to be involved in every aspect of the songwriting. "I didn't know if I'd be able the put out music for different reasons. I didn't know if I would be on a tour. Those were all the things that I had been setting up to do, and that was all foiled. That was all kind of in flux. The thing I could control was songwriting, and that's all I did. I wrote for the next year-plus every day."

With You Got 'Em All finally available for Harmon's loyal fans, it's the end of a arduous journey for Harmon, and the beginning of his next chapter. With so much of his career, at least so far, tied into American Idol, the singer-songwriter has wise words for those whose Idol career will end with the upcoming season finale.

"Be as transparent as you can with the people that hold your destiny literally in their fingers because there's so much more to the show than what you see on the screen," offers Harmon. "As long as you're on the show, you should be working your socials every opportunity you get, and create an army and take them with you once you.

"Only one person's going to win the show, but everybody else is getting the same amount of exposure," he adds. "As soon as the show's over, have your army created to go be your fan group, and stay connected to them."

Purchase You Got 'Em All by visiting Harmon's website.

Photo Credit: Instagram/officialtrentharmon