Taylor Swift: The Brightest Star

Taylor Swift

The Brightest Star

Michael Francis Taylor

Published 2021

NEW HAVEN PUBLISHING LTD

www.newhavenpublishingltd.com

newhavenpublishing@gmail.com

Also available as paperback ISBN:9781912587551

All Rights Reserved

The rights of Michael Francis Taylor, as the author of this work, have been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be re-printed or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now unknown or hereafter invented, including photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the

Author and Publisher.

Cover design © Pete Cunliffe

pcunliffe@blueyonder.co.uk

Copyright © 2021 Michael Francis Taylor

All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781949515220

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:Introduction *

Chapter 2:Acknowledgements / About this book*

Chapter 3:A Crazy Kid with Tangled Hair *

Chapter 4:A Small Girl with a Big Voice*

Chapter 5: Nashville Calling*

Chapter 6: The Big Break*

Chapter 7: Starstruck*

Chapter 8: Flawless Fearless*

Chapter 9: This Ain’t a Fairytale*

Chapter 10: Speaking Now*

Chapter 11: Tour Time*

Chapter 12: Lady in Red*

Chapter 13: Heroes and Villains*

Chapter 14: Guess We’re Not in Nashville Anymore*

Chapter 15: The Most Spectacular Tour*

Chapter 16: Summer of the Apocalypse*

Chapter 17: Year of the Snake*

Chapter 18: Reputation Intact*

Chapter 19: The Worst-Case Scenario*

Chapter 20: Out of the Woods*

Chapter 21: The Best is Still to Come*

About the Author

Chapter 1

* Introduction*

"I write songs about my life, When my life changes, so will my music.

It’s as simple as that. I tell stories"

What does it take to be called America’s Sweetheart? To date, there have probably been only a dozen or so. The names Shirley Temple, Mary Tyler Moore, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, and Julia Roberts spring to mind, actors each and every one; surprisingly, very few have been music artists until now. So, what does it take to be given such an endearing title?

With girl-next-door looks, energetic personalities, and clean-living lifestyles seemingly essential criteria, there have been many wannabes who appear to fit the bill, but then fail to meet expectations. In a world where the excessive pressures and pitfalls of stardom can derail the most lovable of characters, reputations can be shattered in the blink of an eye, falling easy prey to the media hawks looking for those gossip-fed headlines that can damage careers, sometimes irreparably.

Not so Taylor Swift, whose incredible rise to fame, from small-town childhood to global superstardom, has been achieved by simply staying true to herself, remaining an inspiration and source of motivation for her legion of Swiftie fans around the world, and continuing to be the genuine role model, in every sense of the word. In 2013, Vanity Fair dubbed her the girliest girl in America.

In a recording career of a little over fifteen years, Taylor has not only helped shape country music, but successfully made the crossover to mainstream pop without completely taking off her cowboy boots, evidenced in some of her subsequent writing. Along the way she has amassed a catalogue of nine critically-acclaimed albums with total sales of over $50 million, had dozens of hit singles, including many chart-toppers, and continues to break records for her music, videos and live performances. The sum of all this has made her one of the world’s most successful artists.

And it’s not hard to see why. As a songwriter she matures with each and every album, with beautiful melodies and autobiographical lyrics showing an insight that truly exceeds her young age. Her words can be either romantic love letters or vengeful put-downs for being betrayed, and along the way a succession of real-life lovers have all been subjects of her insightful writing, leaving her millions of eager followers poring through her lyrics like detectives looking for leads. She has hatched her very own Swiftian universe, the likes of which have seldom been seen before in any genre.

Then there’s that soft and sweet vocal range which still shows hints of a Tennessee twang, but also has the knack of making words sound like what they mean.

As a live performer, Taylor has complete control of the stage, and to watch her interact with her fans is to see a hugely intelligent and creative mind in overdrive, with dazzling visual displays, both vibrant and intimate, which have her audiences in raptures, hanging on to every spoken word, and mouthing each and every lyric. And they, too, continue to break records for a chance to experience it.

For many young women around the world, she is also a leading style icon and continues to be a trend-setter, her choice always coinciding with the aesthetic look and feel of her most recent album. Since barely leaving school, she has graced the front cover of some of the world’s leading music and fashion magazines, and in her many media interviews she often relates how she owes her incredible success to her parents. Although playing down their role, they are one of the key factors in their daughter’s mercurial rise to stardom.

Then there are her selfless, less well known charitable efforts which continue to help those in need and inspire others to do the same through their action. Her heart is as big as her career.

Taylor has not only matured as an artist; she has blossomed into a deeply caring and sensitive woman, with the added strength to stand up to those who would do her wrong. Like many artists, certain events in her career conspire to add fuel to the media fire, but Taylor deals with all of them the only way she knows how. Along the way, she has made the music industry sit up and listen with her ongoing crusade for artists’ rights.

The 2020 release of her eighth album folklore, in the midst of a global pandemic, took everyone completely by surprise, showcasing a whole new musical direction, lyrically more sophisticated than all that had gone before, and, with its subdued tone and vivid imagery, led to the music world fraternity comparing her songcraft to the likes of such luminaries as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. It served to prove that Taylor was now among the few artists who were willing to put their careers on the line and experiment with a radical change of musical style. To show it wasn’t just a passing whim, within just five months Taylor went one incredible step further by releasing a similar album which also garnered excellent reviews.

It had been a bold move for Taylor, dubbed pandemic art by a few, but hailed by many as being some of her finest work to date.

Without any doubt, Taylor Swift has proved to the world she is one of the greatest songwriters of her generation, and one of the most popular artists of the century. Now seen as more of a Badass Superstar than her country’s sweetheart, she’ll forever be the sweetheart, inspiration, and companion to Swiftie fans around the world, and with her creative energy at an all-time peak, she will no doubt continue to surprise and astound for decades to come.

So, this is the story of that incredible road to success, the good times and times not so good, the euphoria, depression, and the heartbreak, and, above all, the creation of a wonderful musical legacy by one so very young.

Michael Francis Taylor

Chapter 2

* Acknowledgements / About this book*

To say at this moment in time that Taylor Swift is perhaps the most famous, the most photographed, and the most celebrated artist in the world, is perhaps an understatement. Despite being one of the most private artists in show business when it comes to her personal life, and rightly so, she is also, by choice, immediately accessible and forthcoming when it comes to talking about her career in music.

This is my attempt to chart that incredible career, with the focus being on her music, but at the same time highlighting those events in her life which, without question, have had a marked influence on her songwriting. With that in mind, it takes the form of both a mini biography and a critical review of her entire career to date.

All soundbites, reviews and interviews have been judiciously chosen for their succinctness and to give a clearer understanding to the narrative. They are included here under Fair Use guidelines, and source material is duly credited in the final section. Deep appreciation goes out to all concerned.

To say I am a fan of Taylor is also an understatement. Finding out more and more about her background and rise to fame has not in the least taken anything away from my opinion that she is something very special.

Sadly, I am no musician, nor do I profess to be a music critic, but, with a little indulgence, I have chosen to rate the songs. Music will always be subjective, and I have taken the view that we should all be able to take from Taylor’s songs what is meaningful to us at the time. No doubt my favourites will be some of your least favourites, and vice versa. So, please, from one Swiftie to another, no brickbats.

This book has been a labour of love, and the one person I would like to thank is Taylor herself, whose incredible talent, energy and charisma continue to amaze me, and I relish the thought of what the future has in store for this brightest of stars.

Author’s note

While every effort has been made to trace and contact the owners of copyright material reproduced herein and secure permissions, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future edition of this book.

Abbreviations

AC Billboard Adult Contemporary

ACA American Country Awards

ACM Academy of Country Music

AMA American Music Associations

AP Associated Press

BBC British Broadcast Corporation

BMI Broadcast Music Inc.

CMA Country Music Association Awards

CMT Country Music Television

GAC Great American Country

MTV Music Television

NPR National Public Radio

RIAA Record Industry Association of America

Song ratings

1 star - disappointing

2 stars - average

3 stars - good

4 stars - very good

5 stars - outstanding

Chapter 3

* A Crazy Kid with Tangled Hair*

"I was brought up with a strong woman in my life, and I think that had a lot to do with me not wanting to do anything half way."

The Swifts and the Finlays

Their young daughter should be looking forward to a career in finance, or so Taylor’s parents believed. And it was not hard to see why. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, a descendent of three bank presidents, was a marketing specialist working for the large financial company Merrill Lynch. One of three sons, Scott was a native of the affluent Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, born on March 5th 1952 to Archie Dean Swift (1914-1998) and his second wife, Rose Baldi Douglas (1920-1994).

Scott studied business and graduated with a first-class degree from the University of Delaware in 1974. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he entered the world of finance and became a successful stockbroker, eventually setting up Swift Group, an investment banking firm offering well-founded financial advice under the Merrill Lynch umbrella. He eventually rose up the ladder of success to become the company’s first vice-president. His professionalism was noted by lecturer Scott McCain at a business convention:

I learned three important points about Scott Swift. First, he is a remarkable professional - managing millions of dollars for powerful and important clients. He’s an example of a pro who creates ‘the Ultimate Customer Experience.’ Second, he’s one of the most creative and imaginative people I’ve ever met…His ideas are simultaneously simple and profound. Finally, and most important, he is a true ‘connector.’ By that I mean that he connects with people in a highly meaningful manner. When he told me that I could change the world, I just knew he really meant it!

Taylor’s mother, Andrea Gardner Swift, also had a successful career in finance, and before becoming a homemaker worked as a marketing executive for an advertising agency. Like Scott, she was a highly-driven professional with a gritted determination to succeed in what was then an almost entirely male sector. Taylor once commented in a televised interview that, before meeting Scott, her mother was financially independent and had a career of her own and lived alone. The strong independence her mother had would go a long way to shaping Taylor’s own outlook on life and her chosen career.

Like Scott, Andrea was also a native of the Keystone State, born on January 10th 1958. Her father was Ohio-born Robert Bruce Finlay (1920-2003), and after graduating from the University of Virginia, he began a successful career in engineering, culminating in becoming president of the Texas-based Raymond Construction Company.

Andrea’s mother was Marjorie Finlay, born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1928. Her parents were Missouri-born Elmer Henry Moehlenkamp (1897-1972) and Arkansan Cora Lee Morrow (c1901-1962). Raised in St Charles, Missouri, Marjorie was an alumna of the prestigious Lindenwood College, and, having developed a wonderful coloratura soprano voice, set her sights on achieving a career in opera. At the age of 21 she earned her Bachelor of Music and became a member of the renowned Mu Phi Epsilon, an international professional musical fraternity.

The following year, whilst working as a receptionist for a St Louis bank, Marjorie won a talent contest on the ABC radio show Music with the Girls, and was given the opportunity to tour with the show for the next 15 months. After that she honed her vocal skills by attending the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, and also studying music in New York.

Robert and Marjorie were married on March 22nd 1952 in Palm Beach, Florida, and shortly afterward moved to Havana, Cuba, where Robert’s engineering office was based. Due to the growing political unrest there, they later relocated to Puerto Rico. Whilst Richard’s engineering acumen flourished, especially in the oil business, Marjorie’s amazing voice soon gave her celebrity status, performing concerts at local clubs and hotels, and, even with only a slender grasp of Spanish, she became the regular host of a top-rated variety show called the El Show Pan-Americano.

Richard’s work would also see the family spending months in Southeast Asia. Finally returning to the States, they settled into their new home in Houston, Texas. By this time Andrea was about ten years old and had her education at the Memorial High School before going on to graduate from the University of Houston.

This was the nomadic world in which Andrea spent her childhood, watching her mother grace many concert halls, with lead roles that embraced both opera and musicals.

Taylor would share memories of her celebrated maternal grandmother: I have these gorgeous, glamorous pictures of her in black-and-white. She was just so beautiful. Wherever my grandfather would go for his engineering job, my grandmother would go and perform and sing opera. She was in all these musicals in Singapore and all these gorgeous places where my mom grew up. My mom had these amazing stories of growing up overseas. In another interview, she recalled: I can remember her singing, the thrill of it. She was one of my first inspirations.

A girl with a boy’s name

It was while on a business trip to her hometown in Harris County, Texas, that Scott first met Andrea, and they struck up a whirlwind romance that led to them getting married in Houston on February 20th 1988. Scott was a few weeks shy of his 36th birthday; Andrea had just turned 30. They set up home in the small town of West Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania, about midway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

Their first child, Taylor Alison Swift, came into the world at Reading Hospital on Wednesday, December 13th 1989, under the star sign of Sagittarius. Her ancestry included English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, German, and even a little Italian. Although seen as unfortunate for some, the number 13 would bear significance in Taylor’s future career. She explained: I was thirteen when I got my first record deal and my Twitter name is taylorswift13. My first single, ‘Tim McGraw’, had a 13-second intro, and every time something good happens, 13 is involved. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be 13.

With such a solid family foundation cemented in the world of finance, it was no wonder that Taylor’s parents visualised their daughter following in their footsteps one day. With that in mind, they gave her the gender-neutral name of Taylor (after singer James Taylor, a favourite artist) in the belief that it would look favourable on her résumé and help her get a good start in a business career. Taylor explained their logic: She named me Taylor so that if anybody saw on a business card the name, Taylor, they wouldn’t know if it was a girl or a guy if they were thinking of hiring me.

Right from the word go, there seemed to be something very special about baby Taylor, and even the paediatrician at the hospital told her mother: She’s a really good-natured baby, but she knows exactly what she wants and how to get it! Given time, Andrea would come to see just exactly what the doctor meant.

Taylor was born with blonde corkscrew curls and a captivating smile. Her distinctive Sagittarian personality would later reveal opposite traits - honest and intellectual, spontaneous and fun, making friends easily and being an excellent conversationist; but at the same time could be judgemental, reckless, superficial, and have a habit of taking risks and worrying about it later.

Much of Taylor’s early childhood was spent on the family’s 11-acre farm in rural Cumru Township. It had belonged to Scott’s father in the past, and, although her parents were no farmers, Andrea ran a small business selling Christmas trees every December. For young Taylor, it provided the perfect setting, and she described it as the most magical, wonderful place in the world.

Being able to let her imagination run wild would go a long way to foster both her creative and emotional development. Scott and Andrea identified with this. They saw something in Taylor that was indeed special, and they began to nurture it. Without them letting her indulge her dreams and fantasies in the picturesque surroundings, her life could have turned out so differently, and Taylor Swift could very well have found herself working in an office.

Taylor owed a lot of it to Andrea, and explained to the Ottawa Citizen: My mom decided to stay at home to raise me. She totally raised me to be logical and practical. I was brought up with a strong woman in my life and I think that had a lot to do with me not wanting to do anything half way.

At the age of three, Taylor had a sibling. Austin Kingsley Swift was born on March 4th 1993, and, within a couple of years, Andrea decided to put any idea of continuing a career on hold to become a full-time mother. Like his sister, Austin would eventually embrace the arts, becoming a successful actor after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2015.

Taylor would never forget her mother’s sacrifice, and later told the GAC cable channel: I really look up to that. She had me when she was thirty. She had a complete career of her own and was supporting herself.

By the time Austin was born, Taylor had started attending nursery school and then pre-school at the Catholic Alvernia Montessori School in Reading, which was run by Bernardine Franciscan nuns. Interviewed for the hometown paper, the Reading Eagle, Head Sister Ann Marie Coll remembered young Taylor: She was kind of shy but not too shy, and she always liked to sing. When she was in grade school, she came back and played guitar for the children.

Indeed, by the age of three, Taylor had certainly found her voice and was trying to find an audience she could sing to. During the long summer holidays the family would retreat to their recently-bought holiday home at picturesque Stone Harbor on the Jersey Shore. For Taylor it was a paradise, and later she described it to Philadelphia Style magazine (the Philly): I was there every summer, all summer, for the majority of my childhood. It was such an amazing place to grow up. There were so many places to explore…I could not have had a cooler childhood.

Even at the age of two, Taylor was caught on camera trying to sing ‘Unchained Melody’, and her performances were not confined to her home. In a later interview for Marie Claire, Taylor recalled those early summer days on the beach and how she attracted an audience with her singing: "My parents have videos of me on the beach at, like, three, going up to people and singing Lion King songs for them. I was literally going from towel to towel, saying, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor, I’m going to sing I Just Can’t Wait to Be King for you now’."

Taylor was inspired by watching Disney movies, and although captivated by the magic of the stories, it was the music that attracted the most attention. She would learn the lyrics to the songs in no time at all, and even for those she might forget, she would just make up her own words instead.

Nothing was going to stop her singing. At this tender age, she was already developing a musical mind. In an interview with CMT News, she remarked: So I think that was my first real comprehension of the fact that music was what I remember the most from a movie. Not exactly the plotline as much as the music.

The family were also regular church goers and would attend Sunday services and send their children to Sunday School. It was while singing along to the hymns that Taylor had the chance to hear her grandmother Marjorie’s wonderful voice, no doubt outshining everyone else in the building.

Like most girls her age, she could be mischievous, but instead of waiting for her parents to tell her off, she did it herself, as she later revealed to the Daily Mail: When I was naughty as a kid, I used to send myself to my own room. My mom says that she was afraid to punish me sometimes because I was so hard on myself when I did something wrong. I haven’t changed much since then.

As Taylor blossomed into a young girl, her parents began to recognise similarities between their daughter and her charismatic grandmother. At the many parties she would have at her house, Marjorie would captivate everyone with both her persona and her voice. That gravitas was what Taylor later identified as having the IT factor, which made her grandmother different from everyone else. It made Taylor want to be the same.

Taylor was also becoming a great observer of people, as Andrea recalled: From day one, Taylor was always trying to figure out how other people thought and what they were doing and why they were doing it. That was probably an early telltale sign that she had the makings of a songwriter.

Meanwhile, Taylor was experiencing all the delights of living on a farm. The family owned several Quarter horses and a Shetland pony, and horse riding soon became a popular pastime, as did hitching a ride on the tractor. There were also several cats on the farm, and their mouse-hunting exploits and the demise of their prey became the subject of some of young Taylor’s sadder short stories. In the run up to Christmas, she was also given the important but less glamorous job of collecting praying mantis egg pods off the trees, lest they infest someone’s house. Not all farm life was idyllic.

A love affair for words and music

Although the suggestion of her five-year-old daughter having a career as a child model was quickly dismissed by Andrea, and for all the right reasons, Taylor was able to follow what would be a more artistic path. Exuding confidence and charming everyone with her innate ability to engage in conversation made her parents realise just how special their daughter was becoming. Writing had now become more of an obsession.

Taylor not only read poems, she studied their structure and then replicated it with her own rhymes. She was now displaying an extraordinary creative talent. Whilst still at primary school, she was given an assignment to write a two-sentence essay, and to her teacher’s amazement ended up handing in a two-page composition.

At the age of six, Taylor’s parents bought their daughter her first album, LeAnn Rimes’ Blue. LeAnn was already one of the biggest country artists of all time and was only 13 years old. For Taylor, it proved to be a significant moment in her musical education. How different it might have been if she had been given an album by Madonna or Mariah Carey! LeAnn had a majestic voice, but it was the words that captivated Taylor. These songs were telling stories.

As her parents were not really great country music fans, it was left to their young daughter to fully embrace the kind of music that had seldom been played around the house. She later told The Guardian: LeAnn Rimes was my first impression of country music. I got her first album when I was six. I just really loved how she could be making music and having a career at such a young age. Thanks to the Mississippi-born songstress, Taylor now had her first music idol, and the seeds were being sown for her own musical career, a career that in just a matter of a few years would shake the music world by its very foundations.

It was an epiphany for Taylor, and from that moment she listened to other country artists, both young and old, and found a deep connection between the little rhyming couplets and poems she was creating in her mind and the storytelling lyrics of these established artists - often romantic, sometimes heartbreakingly sad, but always captivating. Other female artists that inspired her at the time were the Dixie Chicks, Dolly Parton, and even the venerable Patsy Cline.

At the age of eight, Taylor was lucky enough to get to see LeAnn Rimes in concert at Atlantic City, and later told the Philly: I was totally freaked out. Seeing this person who was my hero…it was crazy.

But despite her newfound love for music, Taylor still had no aspirations to make it her career. With her school friends wanting to grow up to become either astronauts or ballerinas, she just wanted to be like her father, although she didn’t know what a stockbroker did, and later quipped: My dad is so passionate about what he does, like in the way I’m passionate about music. He’s so gung-ho for his job, and I saw how happy it made him, and I just thought, like, ‘I can broke stocks’.

No ordinary child

In 1996, Taylor began her primary education at the nationally-recognised Wyndcroft School, a private co-ed establishment in Pottstown, some 30 miles away. In a school renowned for its first-class academic excellence, Taylor became a star pupil, especially in English. No one noticed this ability more than her teachers. Even at this tender age, Taylor was now writing pages of long poems when most of the students could barely muster a line or two. This was a clear indication that they were seeing a budding writer, maybe a future author. What they didn’t appreciate was how she was honing that skill to become a great lyricist.

One of her tutors recalled: She was incredibly quick-witted. She would come up with these complex ideas that you just wouldn’t expect from someone her age and it would leave people open-mouthed. She was always making up her own stories to entertain the class. She wasn’t a show-off, but she was just genuinely excited to be learning…I had no idea that Taylor would become a singer, but I knew she would probably be famous for something. It would be an injustice if she hadn’t been - she just stood out from the rest...This was no ordinary child.

While at Wyndcroft, Taylor also excelled in music, and by her final year in fourth grade, she could play the recorder to a high standard, sing two-part harmonies, and read music in the treble clef. But it was with the written word that she left everybody astounded. A tutor revealed: Even as early as first grade, she was using positional phrases unheard of from kids that age, and by fourth, she was standing out as smart.

When hearing about a national poetry competition for children, she jumped at the chance. She had already written some wonderful deep and meaningful poems, but decided to make it more light-hearted. As an avid reader of the fantastical rhymes of Dr Seuss, she came up with her own three-page piece called ‘Monster in the Closet’.

There’s a monster in my closet and I don’t know what to do!

Have you ever seen him?

Has he ever pounced on you?

I wonder what he looks like!

Is he purple with red eyes?

I wonder what he likes to eat.

What about his size!!

Tonight I’m gonna catch him!

I’ll set a real big trap!

Then I’ll train him really well.

He’ll answer when I clap!

When I looked up in that closet, there was nothing there but stuff.

I know that monster’s in there!

I heard him huff and puff!

Could it be he wants to eat me?

Maybe I’m his favorite tray.

And if he comes to get me,

I’ll scream loudly, Go away!!

If he’s nice, I’ll name him Happy.

If he’s bad I’ll name him Grouch.

I suspect that he is leaving, but if not. . .I’ll kick him out!

© Taylor Swift

Looking back, she told the Washington Post about the hard work that went into it: I picked the most gimmicky one I had to submit. I didn’t want to get too dark on them. Poetry was my favourite thing. I loved putting things down on paper. It was so fascinating for me…[I was] trying to figure out the perfect combination of words, with the perfect amount of syllables and the perfect rhyme to make it completely pop off the page.

Winning the competition brought a surge in her passion for reading books. One of her early favourites was Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, and its message of showing kindness to others. Any stories that had a moral to them were readily embraced, as she explained to her fans later: If those are the first things you start reading, it can really affect your character. Being good to other people was the main concept I really loved in books. Another favourite was the humorous series of Amelia Bedelia books that depict a housekeeper who takes her instructions too literally.

Taylor’s thirst for stories was never more evident than with Andrea, who later reflected on the ritual of reading her bedtime stories and realising that each time it was igniting another creative spark in her daughter’s young mind. In a later interview with Katie Couric for a Grammys Special, Taylor recalled: I think I fell in love with words before I fell in love with music. All I wanted to do was talk, and all I wanted to do was to hear stories. I would drive my mom insane…

In her final year, Taylor was desperate to get a lead role in a school play as it required a solo singing part. Finding out the character had to be male, she wore a fake moustache, drew black eyebrows, and put her curly hair under a hat to get the part. For her teacher, it showed how dedicated she had become when it came to the arts.

Meanwhile, Taylor had discovered new musical heroines in Faith Hill and Shania Twain. It was Shania, dubbed the Queen of Country Pop, who left the greatest impression. Here was a star who not only sang great songs - she wrote them too. In a later interview for Time magazine, Taylor recalled her admiration: She came out, and she was just so strong and so independent and wrote all her own songs. That meant so much to me, even as a 10-year-old. Just knowing that the stories she was telling in those songs - those were her stories.

Whilst still in fourth grade, Taylor’s musical tastes expanded to include the very latest artists who were making the pop charts, and for a time she flirted with the likes of the Spice Girls, Hanson and the Backstreet Boys, not so much for their music, but for their choreography. However, while emulating all their moves with her friends, her greatest love remained firmly embedded in country.

Chapter 4

* A Small Girl with a Big Voice*

"My parents raised me to never feel like I was entitled to success. That you have

to work for it. You have to work so hard for it. And sometimes then, you don’t

even get where you need to go"

New house, new school

With music now well and truly a firm fixture for Taylor, she had the chance to perform too, and found that school plays and local productions were the perfect stage to show people what she could do. Although chosen for small parts, she relished the opportunity to dress up, rehearse, and perform for an audience, and in return receive their applause. As she got taller, the parts would get bigger.

Taylor’s grasp of the English language went far beyond her tender years, and, in her own words, she had the knack to create stories and fairy tales out of everyday life. Growing up on Christmas Tree Farm had much to do with this. In a later interview for Vogue, she recalled: I had the most magical childhood, running free and going anywhere I wanted to in my head. It had cemented in me this unnatural level of excitement about fall and then the holiday season. My friends are so sick of me talking about autumn coming. There’re like, ‘What are you, an elf?’

However, rural life on the farm had not been idyllic for her parents. For Scott, in particular, it had been hard to make the adjustment from his city-based financial work by day, to living like country bumpkins in the evening. But for Taylor and her younger brother, it was the perfect environment. Not only was she embracing country music, she was becoming a bona fide country girl in both character and appearance. Working on the farm had indeed given her the opportunity to run wild, have straw in her hair, and dirt under her fingernails. In her own words, she recalled those joyous days when she could be a crazy kid with tangled hair.

Sometime in 1999 the Swifts sold their farm and moved to nearby Wyomissing to live in a large white six-bedroom detached mansion on Grandview Boulevard in an upmarket part of town. It was an unsettling time for both Taylor and Austin, who were leaving their friends behind.

Taylor was enrolled at nearby West Reading Elementary School, but, almost from the start, found it difficult to fit in. It was a school that straddled two postcode boundaries and catered for a cross section of kids who came from both the poorest and wealthiest parts of town, and there were the customary cliques of girls who would make her unpopular through their jealousy of her comfortable home life and constant good grades.

In a classroom where rich and poor kids collided, Taylor’s life of luxury at home made her feel isolated at school, and in a later interview for Rolling Stone, she confessed: I didn’t have friends. No one talked to me…I didn’t know anybody. For a kind-hearted girl who craved friendship, these were going to be tough years to come.

To deflect the criticism, Taylor tried her hand at sporting activities, and although being tall for her age could be a physical advantage, she soon realised she wasn’t cut out for sport. She later noted that it mattered what kind of designer handbag you brought to school. Not only that, country music just wasn’t fashionable for West Reading teenage girls.

This experience would have a lasting effect. As a result, she would later turn her feelings into words, and her words into songs.

In the book Taylor Swift: The Rise of the Nashville Teen, one of her former classmates confessed: We treated Taylor like crap, but you know why? We were absolutely downright jealous. Her star shone so brightly, it eclipsed the rest of us and made us feel inferior.

But there was a way to escape the loneliness. Another little milestone in Taylor’s story came when she watched in fascination a production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that was staged by the local actors’ association called the Berks County Youth Theatre Academy (BYTA), for which Andrea soon had her signed up. Taylor found an instant connection with the more friendly, albeit fiercely ambitious, fellow students.

In a matter of days, she had auditioned for Annie, their next production, and although she gained only a small part it gave her experience and added confidence. It was at this first audition that Taylor first met Kaylin Politzer, and they became the best of friends. Kaylin noted how awkward and clunky Taylor was in her dance movements.

With other like-minded wannabe actors sharing the stage, there was also the inevitable competition, and Taylor realised that to succeed she had to keep focused and be prepared to up her game. That growing self-belief, and no doubt her advantage in height, helped her gain lead roles in future productions as Maria in The Sound of Music, and Sandy in Grease.

In a later interview with the GAC channel, Taylor recalled how her voice at this stage had developed a noticeable country twang: It just came out sounding country. It was all I had listened to, so I guess it was just kind of natural. I decided [there and then] country music was what I needed to be doing.

Around this time Taylor started taking singing and acting lessons. One of her earliest supporters was the theatre company director Kirk Cremer, who also ran the local TheatreKids Live! - a sort of Saturday Night Live-inspired comedy group that put on weekly shows in the rehearsal building, with each performer paid $200 for a three-month season. Cremer also gave Taylor private voice lessons, and for her role as Sandy in Grease tried unsuccessfully to remove her noticeable Southern twang. In fact, her distinctive voice would prove another advantage in securing lead roles.

During the summer break, Cremer persuaded Taylor’s parents to allow her to join Kaylin, and two other girls who had displayed extra potential, in a group he had put together called Broadway in Training, which held auditions in New York for roles in Broadway and other productions.

Cremer also acted as their unofficial manager, finding auditions through a manager website and arranging for some professional photo headshots to be taken of the girls. He also helped them select their audition songs and prepare monologues. In an interview for Inquirer Entertainment, Taylor recalled that time: I went to several auditions in New York. I was always going there for vocal and acting lessons...and for auditions, where we would stand in line in a long hallway with a lot of people…I never lost my passion for the theatre.

The competition was hard, but Taylor and Kaylin finally secured parts in a movie, began rehearsing, and then had the disappointment of seeing it cancelled due to lack of funding. Apart from the four girls getting a chance for a one-off performance at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, nothing much came from the venture, and the decision was made to disband the group.

Taylor continued to be chosen for lead roles, which led to a certain amount of envy among other performers and remarks from some disgruntled parents. After what was described as a phenomenal performance in the lead role of Kim in a Berks County production of Bye Bye Birdie, Taylor began to realise that music, not musical theatre, was the way she wanted to go.

Speaking to the Reading Eagle, she later commented: My interest [in musical theatre] soon drew me back to country music. I was infatuated with the sound, with the storytelling. I could relate to it. I can’t really tell you why. With me it’s instinctual. Ever since I discovered their music, I wanted to do country music. I wanted to sing country music. Didn’t matter if I lived in Pennsylvania. Didn’t matter if everybody at my school was like, ‘You? Play country music? Why do you like country music? You’re so weird’.

Finding her audience

Although becoming a little disillusioned with theatre, Taylor did enjoy the after-show parties for parents and kids alike, and it was there she first discovered a karaoke machine. It was like being given a golden ticket by Willy Wonka. Now she could try and emulate her favourite singers and sing her favourite songs. On one of these occasions, Cremer’s mother Sandy Wielder watched Taylor sing and was so impressed she suggested to her son that she believed Taylor would do better following a career in country music rather than becoming an actor. She just seemed to be a natural.

It was all Taylor wanted to hear, and it signalled the beginning of her journey to stardom. As luck would have it, Andrea readily agreed with the advice, and over the next few months drove her daughter to various venues to let her sing, with appearances at open-mic nights and karaoke competitions. It wasn’t too long before Taylor was becoming quite a hometown celebrity, and many thought she was destined for bigger things.

One person who saw this as a genuine prospect was Kirk Cremer’s brother, Ronnie, who not only was a director of the youth academy, but was also a guitar teacher, manager and music producer. After seeking advice from Andrea, he leased space at a local mall to showcase his young protégé singing with karaoke backing tracks.

The more Taylor performed, the easier it became. Speaking to Elle magazine, she said: Every time you play another show, it gets better and better. But when I first started singing in front of crowds…it was a little scary at first. Anything you’ve just started doing is going to be scary. Taylor was able to mask her initial insecurity and display nothing but confidence.

Taylor recalled for CMT News: Every single weekend, I would go to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests - any place I could get up on stage. The cool thing about this is that my parents have never pushed me. It’s always been [my] desire and love to do this. If I had been pushed, if I didn’t love this, I would probably not have been able to get this far.

One of her regular karaoke venues was a roadhouse just out of town owned by former country star Pat Garrett. She would turn up and sing every weekend, leaving her parents feeling a little embarrassed by it. In an interview for CMT News, she recalled: I started out singing karaoke in his roadhouse - his little bar - when I was ten years old. He’ll vouch that I was in there every single week saying, ‘I’m just going to come back if you don’t let me win one.’ I was kind of like an annoying fly around that place. I just would not leave them alone. What they would do is have these karaoke contests. And if you won, you got to open for, like, Charlie Daniels or George Jones. I would go until I won.

During one of the karaoke performances someone came up to Andrea and told her straight that this was what her daughter should be doing for a living. But by now, Andrea needed no convincing. She watched how Taylor sang with supreme confidence, belting out one of her favourite country songs as if it was something she had been born to do. And then she saw the audience’s response. This was her precious little girl, not yet a teenager, making people take real good notice of her. It was a moment to be both proud and blessed.

Taylor was clearly getting herself a name as a performer, but it also led to more friction with the other members of the theatre group. Before long, BYTA closed for good.

Meanwhile, after winning a local talent competition, Cremer was so impressed by Taylor’s performance that he arranged for her to be the opening act for the legendary Charlie Daniels Band at the Strausstown Amphitheater. Unfortunately, her booking was for mid-morning, hours before the main act, and there was hardly anyone there to watch her perform. Amends were soon made when Cremer got her a slot at the Bloomsbury Fair, a large outdoor event that attracted hundreds of people. With a little backing band provided, Taylor nervously performed two songs. It went well, and, with each successive performance, her confidence grew. She now looked for bigger audiences.

A magical land called Nashville

Opportunity soon came when she was invited to sing the national anthem for the local baseball team, the Reading Phillies, in front of a sizeable crowd. However, if this failed to quench her thirst, she had her sights set on bigger things. That chance came on April 5th 2002 when, through her father’s connections with the marketing manager of the local basketball team, the Philadelphia 76ers, she was invited to sing the national anthem in front of some 20,000 fans. Wearing a red headband and a top covered in tiny American flags, she belted out the song and received a wild ovation. In her own words, it was an awesome experience, made even more so when she encountered someone she recognised as she was leaving: Jaz-Z was sitting court-side and he gave me a high-five after I sang…I bragged about that for, like, a year straight. It was indeed one of the proudest moments of her early career. Here was one of the biggest names in music congratulating her, and it must have felt like she was walking on air.

Taylor’s parents were blown away by their daughter’s talent and encouraged and supported her along her journey. In an interview for The Independent, Taylor recalled something her mother had once told her: You can do whatever you want in life - as long as you work hard to get there. You have to work hard for every single baby step that you take that is closer to what you want - and we will support that until you change your mind and do something else. And when you want to do something else, we will be your cheerleaders in that too.

Heartfelt words from Taylor’s mother, whose tenacity was matched by her commitment to do right by her daughter and let nothing stand in her way. It was not by coincidence that Taylor would inherit those traits, which helped her through some difficult times in the years to come.

Kirk Cremer was so amazed with how Taylor was building up her confidence that he felt it was the right time for her to record some tracks for a demo cd. Having the use of a studio owned by older brother Ronnie, Taylor recorded four cover versions - LeAnn Rimes’ ‘One Way Ticket’, the Dixie Chicks’ ‘There’s Your Trouble’, Dolly Parton’s ‘Here You Come Again’, and Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’.

Ronnie Cremer recalled that first meeting: The first time I heard of Taylor, my brother had a theatre company. They would have parties after the show, and they would do karaoke. My mom would attend these. I only met Taylor face-to-face in 2002. I had a shop up in Leesport. It was a computer shop, and that’s where I had my little studio. My brother brought Taylor and her mom and her brother over and introduced me, and said, ‘Would you be interested in recording a demo?’ It was a couple of cover songs. I recorded the demo for her. It wasn’t a great demo, but it was a demo.

Everything was seemingly fitting into place. One evening Taylor happened to be watching a program called Behind the Music on VH1, showcasing the career of Faith Hill, one of Taylor’s country music favourites. It was only then that she learned that the Mississippi-born singer, like LeAnn Rimes, had also been discovered in Nashville. It was a singular moment. From that day on, Taylor was even more determined to go to what was dubbed Music City, USA and be discovered like two of her idols.

In an article for the Daily Telegraph, she recalled: I got it into my head that there was this magical land called Nashville where dreams come true and that’s where I needed to go. I began absolutely non-stop tormenting my parents, begging them on a daily basis to move there.

In a later interview for Rolling Stone, she spoke about how three of her music heroes had inspired her in different ways: "I saw that Shania Twain brought this independence, this crossover appeal; I saw that Faith Hill brought this classic old-school glamour and beauty and grace; and I saw the Dixie Chicks brought this complete ‘We don’t care what you think’ quirkiness. I loved what all of those women were able to do and what they were able to bring to country music."

Mom to the rescue

Taylor continued to look forward to the long summer vacations at Stone Harbor. It was really cool living on the bay, and we have so many stories about it, she told the Philly. Her parents gave her the large attic space above the garage, almost an entire floor that comprised three rooms. For any of her vacation friends invited back to her clubhouse, it must have seemed like this girl had her own apartment. She explained how she made a filing system of club members: I would write on tiles I found. I painted the whole room different colours and used to spend all day in there just doing nothing but sitting in my little club. Because it was mine.

While on vacation, Taylor’s mind was constantly on the son of her parents’ friends who happened to live next to their holiday home. He was the same age as Taylor and spent many summer days around the Swift house. I swore I would marry him one day, she recalled. Hoping against hope that he would ask her out, it never happened. Instead, he told her he had his eyes set on other girls. Although Taylor’s young heart was crushed by the rejection, it led to her writing one of her very first songs, ‘Invisible’. She recalled: I felt, well, invisible. Obviously. So, I wrote that song about it.

As sad as the experience was for Taylor, she continued to put her heart and soul into performing during the summer breaks. With her guitar playing now reaching an acceptable standard, she played longer acoustic sets. If she ran out of songs to perform, she would just make some up on the spot and carry on.

While staying at Stone Harbor, Taylor found the perfect spot to serenade friends and strangers at Harry’s seafood restaurant, where she became known as the little girl with the big voice. Another venue was the Coffee Talk café where she would play for hours and hours.

From the age of eleven Taylor had a good friend called Britany Maack and they did everything together until Britany moved away. She would later write a song called ‘Me and Britany’ in which her friend moves away to Memphis to be with a boy and then becomes a movie star, instead of Taylor moving to Nashville to become a singer. In reality, Britany never moved to Memphis, and they remained close friends for many years to come.

It was while sharing a holiday at Stone Harbor in August 2002 that Taylor and Britany managed to get their names in the local press, all thanks to Andrea. In a Reading Eagle headline that read Wyomissing mother makes ocean rescue, the paper reported how she had