Nashville — TAYLOR SWIFT knew early on that the odds were against her getting noticed in this town, filled as it is to the Stetson brim with men and women chasing dreams of stardom.
That was apparent to her on her first trip here six years ago, when she began knocking on doors in hopes of landing a recording contract.
"I realized that there are thousands of girls going up and down Music Row who are gorgeous and who have amazing voices and who can sing higher and louder than me," she said during an interview in a bunker-like basement office of her label, Big Machine Records. "Somehow I had to find a way to stand out and be the different one."
She knew she had to stand out, rather than up: She was 11 years old at the time and probably 4 feet tall. Yet, about a year later, convinced of her talent and commitment, her parents moved the family from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. At 14, she won a publishing contract for her songwriting and at 16 got a record deal with the fledgling Big Machine.
Her debut single last fall took as its title the name of one of her own favorite singers. "Tim McGraw," took her straight into the Top 5 of the country singles chart and propelled her debut album, "Taylor Swift," to gold status (for sales of 500,000 copies) in just three months.
Swift is 17 now, and if there's a word to sum up this newly minted country star, it would have to be "driven." And not just because she recently become old enough to drive here, there and everywhere as her career has been defying those odds and taking off.
"I made it a point from Day 1 that I didn't want my age to be highlighted," she says. "If I wanted one thing to be showcased, I wanted it to be my writing, not 'Look what she can do for a 17-year-old girl.' I want it to be 'Look what I can do ... with my writing, with my guitar playing, with my performance.' ... I never wanted to use the age thing as a little gimmick to get me ahead of people. I wanted to fight fair."
She landed high-profile opening slots for Rascal Flatts last fall, spent the early part of this year on country kingpin George Strait's spring tour and will be on the road during the summer touring with Brad Paisley.
And she'll be in Las Vegas on Tuesday to find out whether she takes home the Academy of Country Music's award for the year's top new female artist, a field in which she's vying with "Nashville Star" grad Miranda Lambert and "American Idol" contestant Kellie Pickler.
