Taylor Swift added another trophy to put on what must now be a seriously crowded mantelpiece yesterday when she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
At 36, she is the youngest inductee ever. In her acceptance speech, Swift took time to praise the town and its songwriting tradition and reflect on how she learned her craft when she first arrived.
Recalling her early days in the city, Swift said: “I think back to when I first got to Nashville and I started writing on Music Row. I was lucky enough to get a publishing deal with Sony Publishing when I was 14 and I just hit the ground running.
“I started writing every single day. I learned so much. But I learned by repetition. I think you truly learn a craft when you do it over and over and over and that is what the magnificent songwriters that work in this amazing town do. There is no music community like this music community. I know. I checked all the communities. There’s no one doing it.”
She continued: “I learned how to push through a creative block when you’re in the middle of a session. Are we going to tunnel under this? Are we going to hurdle over it? I learned which ideas are worth fighting for, which ideas are worth letting go of and move on to the next one. I learned how to accommodate when your co-writer has a hangover or when they’re going to need to talk about their divorce for a really long time before we write anything.”
“Because one thing that I did learn is that songwriters, although they possess the superhuman ability to understand and interpret the human condition and insane levels of empathy, they are just people too. And they are people who in a lot of ways raised me and guided me through my formative years.”
Swift shared a couple of anecdotes from those years as a songwriter before ending by paying tribute to the city: “Nashville is the place that honed and polished the thing about myself and the thing about my life that I am the most proud of and the most passionate about. So to be here with you and to be getting to have this moment, I am truly grateful and it just feels like one of those amazing Nashville moments I’m going to revisit on a rainy day.”
The other inductees on Monday night included Shawn Camp, Lyle Lovett, Lee Thomas Miller and Bruce Channel (yes, him! Of Hey! Baby fame. He’s still with us, at 85). Also honoured was the late JI Allison, of Buddy Holly’s Crickets, who was inducted into the institution’s Legacy Category for his work on classics like That’ll Be the Day, Peggy Sue, and More Than I Can Say.
