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Footnote of the photo: Taylor Swift photo by Andrew Orth, courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Life in the Swift Lane By Jamison Rotch

Editor's note: You've probably seen GAC's new series, Shortcuts featuring rising star Taylor Swift Now GACTV.com takes you way behind the scenes-even before Taylor filmed Shortcuts! Writer Jamison Rotch spent the day with Taylor last fall as her big adventure was just beginning Read on for a detailed day-in-the-life of one of country's most promising young talents.

Taylor Swift is nervous.

is hard to blame her. In a little less than four hours the 15-year-old sophomore will take the stage at a press conference in downtown Nashville announcing her as one of the first artists signed to a new record label started by veteran label executive Scott Borchetta. But it isn't the glare of the national media spotlight that has the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

it’s the car ride over.

"I can drive in a straight line and turn” admits Taylor, who is scheduled to get her license in a few months. But I don't like arrows and lines. And I don't like stop signs. The whole bigger car rule definitely applies when I drive."

Such is life these days for Taylor Swift a balancing act of the ordinary trials and tribulations of a teenager with the extraordinary existence of an artist on the brink of stardom.

I've spent the morning before the press conference following Taylor around her high school in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a small town that has not quite been absorbed into the sprawl of Music City. It is very much the typical start of a day of a typical teenager, First period was Latin Il. After the bell, it was a mad dash back to Taylor’s locker for a change of notebooks and a quick gossip session with friends before we're off again, this time to a second period Fashion class.

Halfway through a lecture on the cyclical nature of style is the first hint this will not be just another day. The intercom crackles to life and the pleasant voice of the secretary informs Taylor her mother has arrived to check her out of school. Several students and her teacher offer their well-wishes as she gathers her books. Minutes later i am hurtling south on I-65 towards downtown.

It seems fitting that Taylor's first idol in country music was LeAnn Rimes. “I knew every song she ever sang,” she says. LeAnn at the time was 14 years old, just starting her career. Taylor was six, just starting elementary school "After that, i kind of went back and learned the history of [country music]” she says. “i listened to legends like Dolly and Patsy Cline, women who were the essence of country music.”

A love of music soon developed into a need to perform and it was not long before she joined the children's theatre group in her hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. It was onstage she noticed something interesting about her singing style." was playing the role of Sandy in Grease and it just came out sounding country. It was all had listened to so i guess it was just kind of naturalI decided country music was what needed to be doing."

Taylor spent the next few years honing her talent anywhere she could-dragging her parents with her to national anthems at ballgames, performing at countless karaoke contests and even the occasional bar. Taylor smiles at the memory. "They were kind of embarrassed by it I guess. This little girl singing in this smoky bar. But they knew how much it meant to me so they went along with it”.

At age 11. Taylor decided it was time to take her first trip to Nashville. She can laugh now at her nalve expectations. “I was like, if I want to sing music, I'm going to need a record deal. So, I'm going to get a record deal. I thought it was that easy. I made a demo tape of me singing along to karaoke songs and my mom and I started walking up and down Music Row handing them out to receptionists at every label. I think had like one person call me back. And he was so sweet, just kind of telling me, “You know, this is not how you do this."

Taylor retumed to Pennsylvania without a record deal but a little wiser and even more focused on her music. For the first time, she picked up a guitar. Within ten minutes she had written her first song, "Lucky You" She has not stopped writing since.

"Whatever you're feeling that day, it comes out of you,” Taylor says of songwriting. “is kind of like photography-looking at a little picture album of where you are emotionally. I now consider myself a songwriter first and foremost, and I have never written anything I didn't mean.”

As is the case with a struggling artist of any age, all Taylor needed was a break. It came at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, when her rendition of the national anthem wowed a crowd that included the manager of Britney Spears. Knowing young talent when he sees it, Taylor was quickly brought aboard his team within a few months, she was featured as a rising star in an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign.

When Taylor made her return to Nashville, she came armed with a demo of songs she had written and plenty of buzz. This time Music City took notice. After a brief venture with RCA, Taylor eventually signed with Sony ATV publishing and began working with some of the biggest songwriters in town. She was 14 years old.

When I ask if her age is over an issue when working with other writers, Taylor pauses for a moment. It takes a moment to realize the teenager is trying to be diplomatic. "Basically there are two kinds of people - people who see me as an artist and judge me by my music,” she states. "The other people judge me by a number-my age-which means nothing. Some people refuse to look past the fact that I am young.

While writing at Sony, Taylor became a blip on the red hot radar of Scott Borchetta, a man instrumental in the development of countless country stars over his 20-year career, including Toby Keith's rise to superstardom. As Borchetta was coming to the end of his tour of duty as senior VP of promotion and artist development at DreamWorks, he invited Taylor to drop by his office to play some of her songs. He was impressed enough to show up at a showcase for the young artist a few weeks later at the famed Bluebird Café. As Taylor remembers. "Out of all the people in the room, he was the only one who had his eyes closed and was totally into the music.

"I was blown away,” confesses Borchetta. “She has this amazing filter. Everyday life comes in and it comes out Taylor Swift music.”

Little did Taylor know that Borchetta was already making plans to venture out on his own. After hearing the talented young artist, he made signing Taylor one of Ns top priorities.

In Taylor, Borchetta sees the total package. “She is so intelligent,” he says, "shes such a great writer, she has a great attitude. She's a hard worker.” And although she displays all the qualities of a seasoned pro in the business, he admits there are occasional moments where Taylor's youth bubbles to the surface.

"She's teenager, which is so amazing because I get all those teenager phone calls,” says Borchetta. "She's just so cute, its ridiculous. Her [outgoing] phone message is like, 'Hey, it's Taylor. I can't get your call right now but call back like 100 times and I'll get back to you."

A short time after the Bluebird show, Taylor received a mysterious phone call from Borchetta. "He was like, i’m going to be doing something and I need to talk to you in person because I don't trust the phone" she recalls. “And I was like, if you don't trust the phone there has got to be something going on that I want to know about. And when I heard what he wanted to do it absolutely blew my mind.”

What Borchetta wanted to do was take on the major Music Row record companies by starting up his own independent label, Big Machine Records. That is just the way Taylor likes it "That's always been my kind of thing" she says. "I've wanted to stir it up. I've always wanted people to say, “Okay, she's doing things a little differently”.

Which brings us to this moment hurtling down a major Interstate to a national news conference and a recording contract awaiting her signature. As she narrowly avoids a merging 18-wheeler, Taylor mentions she had to take the written permit test three times before finally passing. “I cried every time I failed, I was so sad,” she gushes, "But then when passed, I cried because I was so happy.”

She sounds like a schoolgirl, I think to myself as I make sure my seatbelt is secure. And at this moment, it's hard not to wonder and worry about her knowing what this business can do to the young. Then she gets a far off look in her eye and says matter-of-factly “You know, I'm not really looking to model my career after anyone, I'm looking to do something new. I want to do everything new. I mean country music will always be country music.. but the audiences can be changed and expanded. I think it would be great if when I'm 90 years old and looking back on life, I can say I did things people didnt expect and was successful."

Suddenly she seems anything but 15.

I glance ahead at the road and find amazingly enough for Nashville on a weekday afternoon, that traffic has cleared. The stretch of Interstate ahead of us is now as wide-open as the future of this young woman behind the wheel. I look to Taylor Swift. From the gleam in her eyes, she has also noticed the empty asphalt in front of her. She smiles ever so slightly tightens her grip on the steering wheel and steps on the gas.

[End of article]