TAYLOR SWIFT: THE DEBUT YEARS

It was so obvious she had something You know she was 13 and she had that sparkle So much sparkle dust around her Renee Bell head of A&R at RCA RecordsMeet Taylor 2003 She s a teen who came to Nashville with blisters on her fingers from learning to play a 12 string guitar In every room she enters she s the youngest person by decades and often the only woman And if anyone asked if she could see herself becoming the biggest superstar on the planet her answer probably would have been yes Writing alongside industry veterans after school Taylor Swift s song writing ability set her apart But her origins are more complex than a teen tapping into a new generation of country music fans It s a story of taking risks like walking away from powerhouse label RCA to strike out with an unknown unfunded new label and of trusting her instincts when no one else did Washington Post reporter Emily Yahr pulls back the curtain on the country music industry from executives who said yes to Taylor and those who regret saying no to collaborators like Scott Borchetta Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose to Nashville itself Intimate and immersive Yahr takes us to iconic locations like Music Row and The Bluebird Cafe as well as to Hendersonville High and the Swifts own lakef