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ABOVE: Shania Twain was one of Taylor’s earliest influences.

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made her first visit to the country capital with her parents to leave demos at record companies on Music Row. The trip ended in rejection and disappointment, but she learned a valuable lesson; “That’s when I realized that I needed to be more. I needed to know how to do something more than just sing a song.” Taylor began performing “The Star Spangled Banner” at sporting events and was once high-fived by rapper Jay-Z at a Philadelphia 76ers NBA game. A year after the Nashville visit, she started to play guitar when family friend Ronnie Kramer came to fix the computer and taught her three chords. Taylor being Taylor, she was soon writing songs, the first being “Lucky You.”

In April 2004, and with the wholehearted backing of her parents, she began working with Dan Dymtrow, a talent representative based in New York who had numbered Britney Spears among his clients. Dymtrow helped her place a song she’d written, “The Outside,” on a Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD called “Chicks With Attitude,” an annual event to help young female artists get started. Dymtrow also brokered meetings with major record companies. After she performed at a record-company showcase, RCA offered the 13-year-old an artist development deal. According to Taylor, the company agreed to, “Sponsor and pay for your demos that you do over this next

year, and we’re going to see how you grow as an artist. And then in a year, we’re going to decide whether we want you or whether we want to develop you for more time, or whether we want to drop you.” The deal involved many trips to Nashville, and this constant to-ing and fro-ing provoked a major family decision. When Taylor was 14, her father transferred to the Merrill Lynch office in the city and moved the family to Hendersonville, a prosperous suburb. This, as Taylor acknowledged, “was an incredible sacrifice for my parents to make and I’ve never forgotten it.” For her freshman and sophomore years, Taylor attended