Taylor Swift Tickets

Taylor Swift News and Information Taylor Swift is certainly a newbie on the country scene, but she has made quite a name for herself in less than two short years.

The 18-year-old singer was raised in Pennsylvania and now resides in Tennessee. Swift was influenced by the likes of Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age, and also cites LeAnn Rimes as an inspiration. Swift performed around her hometown at the age of 10 and by 11 she was traveling to Nashville, Tenn., in hopes of a record deal.

Eventually her persistence paid off and she was offered a contract at 13, but declined it - shortly thereafter she was signed to Big Machine Records after Scot Borchetta caught her performing at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.

Swift released her self titled album two months after her first single, "Tim McGraw" hit airwaves. The album was a success on the Billboard 200 and Top Country albums. Interestingly, Swift either wrote or co-wrote every single song on the album, something she is very proud of, considering many of the other young female performers that dont have such a hands-on approach.

The most popular single on the album was "Our Song" - it was her first No.1 track. After the success of her first album, Swift released "Sounds of the Season" in October of 2007. The holiday album included a number of holiday classics such as "Last Christmas."

Swift got her touring chops with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour when she opened for them. She has also opened for Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and George Straight. During the summer of 2008 she supported Rascal Flatts on the road for the Country Megaticket tour.

The singer released her follow-up album in the fall of 2008. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 2008 Grammy Awards, but lost to Grammy darling Amy Winehouse.