• NEWS AND NOTES: Taylor, Keith, Vince, Carrie, Darius, Reba, Chris

    Taylor Swift‘s “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s version)” is featured in the trailer for the new animated film, Spirited Untamed, from Dreamworks.  The song originally appeared on her 1989 album, and this is the first and only place to hear her re-recorded version of the song.

    The film, which features the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore, Walton Goggins, Andre Braugher, and Isabela Merced, will hit theaters nationwide on June 4th.

     

    Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban are among the artists featured on a limited-edition LP for the Grand Ole Opry’s Unbroken: Empty Room, Full Circle album. The announcement came on the anniversary of the Opry’s decision to pause in-house audiences in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Available June 4th, 2021, exclusively on Opry.com and at the Opry’s Nashville-based retail outlets,  the LP includes memorable performances recorded live from the Opry stage in front of an empty house. For 29 weeks, Saturday night Opry shows continued uninterrupted despite public health orders that temporarily shuttered many other live productions. These performances were made possible because of the devotion of Grand Ole Opry members, featured performers, Opry staff and local health officials who safely worked together to bring comfort to millions around the world. Brad Paisley, Marty Stuart, Luke Combs and many more.

    Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, join actor-singer Leslie Jordan on his song “Farther Along,” which will be featured on his forthcoming debut album of Southern gospel hymns, Company’s Comin’.  Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne, Dolly Parton, Ashley McBryde, Tanya Tucker, Brandi Carlile and more are featured on the album. The Tennessee native, best known for his roles in TV shows such as “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Public,” “Reba,” “Boston Legal,” and “American Horror Story,” has become a social media favorite while in quarantine for his endearing videos, including a regular “Sunday Mornin’ Hymn Singin'” series.

     

  • TAYLOR SWIFT WINS ALBUM OF THE YEAR FOR folklore.

    Taylor Swift won the overall Album of the Year Award during Sunday night’s (March 14th), becoming the first woman to win the award for a third time. Taylor first took home the award for Fearless in 2010 and then again for 1989 in 2015. The only previous artists to win Album of the Year three times are Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.

    Taking to the stage with her co-writers and co-producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, Taylor thanked her collaborators, her boyfriend singer-songwriter Joe Alwyn, her friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and their three children, who are referenced in the album, adding, “But mostly, we just want to thank the fans. You guys met us in this imaginary world that we created, and we can’t tell you how honored we are forever by this. Thank you so much and thank you to the Recording Academy. We will never forget that you did this for us. Thank you so much.”

     

    Taylor also performed a medley of her songs “cardigan,” “august” and “willow.”

    folklore is the first of two surprise albums Taylor released over the past year during quarantine. Her most recent collection, evermore, includes her latest country single, “no body, no crime.”

  • TAYLOR SWIFT AND MICKEY GUYTON ARE AMONG THE ARTISTS TO PERFORM ON THIS YEAR’S GRAMMY AWARDS.

    The list of performers at this year’s Grammy Awards has been announced. Taylor Swift — who is among this year’s top nominees with six nods including overall Album of the Year for folklore and Song of the Year for “cardigan”  — is set to perform, as is Mickey Guyton who will make her first appearance on the show. Mickey is nominated in Best Country Solo Performance for “Black Like Me.”

    Other performers include Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, Post Malone, Brandi Carlile, BTS, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Haim, John Mayer, Megan Thee Stallion and Harry Styles, among others.

    According to Billboard, the telecast will pay tribute to independent venues, which have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Various categories will be presented by club workers from The Troubadour (Los Angeles), The Hotel Café (Los Angeles), The Apollo Theater (New York City) and The Station Inn (Nashville).

    The 63rd annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, will broadcast live on Sunday, March 14th beginning at 8pm ET/5pm PT on CBS. The show will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

  • TAYLOR SWIFT’S RE-RECORDED VERSION OF FEARLESS INCLUDES SONGS “FROM THE VAULT.”

    When Taylor Swift recently dropped “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” she also revealed she has already re-recorded all of the songs from her album, Fearless, plus six additional new songs that have never been released.

    “I’m really excited for people to hear these six additional never-before-heard tracks from my version of Fearless. These are songs that I’m calling ‘From the Vault,’ and I call them that because there are songs that I wrote over the course of my career that were meant for certain albums, but did not end up making the track list for reasons that, to me, don’t really matter now,” says Taylor. “Like, I would make decisions based on like, ‘Oh, there are too many break-up songs on this album. I can’t put this one on too. There are too many slow songs on this album, I can’t put this one on too. And I think curating an album is really important, but at the same time, it’s really fun to now go back and show the fans the full picture of what I had created at that time in my life.”

    The new version of her Fearless album will be available beginning April 9th.

    Her re-recording of “Love Story” topped Billboard’s airplay, sales and streaming-based Hot Country Songs chart (her first to debut at No. 1). Her original version topped the charts November 22nd and 29th, 2008. She joins Dolly Parton as the only other artist whose originals and re-recordings topped the charts. Dolly’s “I Will Always Love You,” first topped the chart in 1974, followed by a new version in 1982.

    “This is my first time having a No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and I’m so grateful to the fans for making this a possibility,” she tells Billboard. “They’re the ones who emboldened me to reclaim my music and they really showed up this week to see it through. It blows me away that they’ve sent a song to No. 1 that had its first life over a decade ago. I couldn’t be happier that it happened now, and in this way.”

    Taylor is also currently making her way up the country charts with her single, “no body, no crime” from her recently released album, evermore.

    Audio / Taylor Swift explains why Fearless (Taylor's Version) will include six new songs.

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    Taylor Swift (additional tracks on new version of Fearless) OC: …in my life. :43
    “I’m really excited for people to hear these six additional never-before-heard tracks from my version of Fearless. These are songs that I’m calling ‘From the Vault,’ and I call them that because there are songs that I wrote over the course of my career that were meant for certain albums, but did not end up making the track list for reasons that, to me, don’t really matter now. Like, I would make decisions based on like, ‘Oh, there are too many break-up songs on this album. I can’t put this one on too. There are too many slow songs on this album, I can’t put this one on too. And I think curating an album is really important, but at the same time, it’s really fun to now go back and show the fans the full picture of what I had created at that time in my life.”

  • TAYLOR SWIFT RELEASES “LOVE STORY (TAYLOR’S VERSION)” AND REVEALS THE RELEASE DATE OF HER RE-RECORDING OF HER FEARLESS ALBUM.

    As the clock struck midnight, Taylor Swift released the re-recording of “Love Story.” The new version of the song, which was first heard in a commercial for Match.com, leads the re-release of her 2008 album, Fearless, available April 9th (which was teased in an Easter egg in a posted message to fans yesterday).

    She says of “Love Story,” a song she wrote when she was 17, “I think it involved teenage angst. I think I was mad at my parents for not letting me go on a date or something, and it also is a good example of what a hopeless romantic I was and still am. I really loved the story of Romeo and Juliet, except for the ending because that was just like too devastating to process. So, I changed the ending in the song and I’ve just ever since been so honored by the fact that people have celebrated this song so much. I feel really lucky that people responded to it the way that they did and continue to.”

    Taylor was able to merge two of her worlds in re-recording the new track (and album). One fun thing about re-recording ‘Love Story’ is that I really wanted my touring band to get a chance to play on this version, because you know a lot of them have spent years playing this song over and over again. So, it was really important to me to have my band, who I’ve toured with and shared a stage with for so many years playing on the record. But we also have Jonathan Yudkin, the original fiddle player. We’ve got Caitlin Evanson, the original backup vocalist, and I think it’s really, really great that it’s a combination of the originals and people who have been sweating on stages with me for over a decade.”

    The new version of her Fearless album will include six newly recorded tracks that the global superstar had written around the same time she wrote and recorded songs for the 2008 release.

    Taylor is making her way up the country charts with her single, “no body, no crime” from her recently released album, evermore.

    Audio / Taylor Swift talks about her song “Love Story,” which she just re-released as “Love Story (Taylor’s version).”

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    Taylor Swift (story behind release of Love Story) OC: …continue to. :34
    “’Love Story’ is a song that I wrote when I was 17 and I think it involved teenage angst. I think I was mad at my parents for not letting me go on a date or something, and it also is a good example of what a hopeless romantic I was and still am. I really loved the story of Romeo and Juliet, except for the ending because that was just like too devastating to process. So, I changed the ending in the song and I’ve just ever since been so honored by the fact that people have celebrated this song so much. I feel really lucky that people responded to it the way that they did and continue to.”

    Audio / Taylor Swift shares a fun story from the recording of “Love Story (Taylor’s version).”

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    Taylor Swift (Love Story fun fact) OC: …a decade. :34
    “One fun thing about re-recording ‘Love Story’ is that I really wanted my touring band to get a chance to play on this version, because you know a lot of them have spent years playing this song over and over again. So, it was really important to me to have my band, who I’ve toured with and shared a stage with for so many years playing on the record. But we also have Jonathan Yudkin, the original fiddle player. We’ve got Caitlin Evanson, the original backup vocalist, and I think it’s really, really great that it’s a combination of the originals and people who have been sweating on stages with me for over a decade.”

    Audio / LINER Taylor Swift (Love Story) 1

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    Audio / LINER Taylor Swift (Love Story) 2

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    Audio / LINER Taylor Swift (Love Story) 3

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  • TAYLOR SWIFT ANNOUNCES THE NEW VERSION OF HER ALBUM FEARLESS (TAYLOR’S VERSION) IS DONE, AND SHE’S DROPPING “LOVE STORY (TAYLOR’S VERSION)” TONIGHT.

    Taylor Swift shared a surprise announcement on ABC’s Good Morning America and on her socials this morning (February 11th) that her new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be available soon. It has 26 songs including six never before released songs from the vault. Also, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” will be out tonight.

    https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1359854050544615425

     

    https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1359853262384553986

     

    She posted a message to her fans and at the end, she says, ‘this process has been more fulfilling and emoTional than I could’ve imagined and made me even more determined to re-record all my music. i Hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it.”

    Taylor is currently making her way up the country charts with “no body, no crime” from her evermore album.

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  • TAYLOR SWIFT’S LATEST, “no body, no crime,” IS BASED ON HER FASCINATION OF TRUE CRIME DRAMAS.

    Taylor Swift has released her new single, “no body, no crime,” to country radio. She solely wrote the song, which appears on her new multi-week No. 1 album, evermore. The tune follows the story of “Este,” who confronts her cheating husband. She then goes missing and it is presumed by the narrator that she was murdered by her husband. Without a body, the husband cannot be tried for murder, however, Este’s friend (narrator) takes it upon herself to kill the husband, ultimately framing the mistress.

    Taylor says the song is based on her fascination of true crime dramas. “Writing ‘no body, no crime’ I think was directly based on my love of true crime podcasts and Dateline type programs,” says Taylor. “Also, I just kind of got this melody in my head and I thought about my friend, Este. I’ve always thought her name was so cool, and so it all kind of came together as this sort of murder mystery type revenge plot. I asked my friend if I could use her name as the lead character, and she agreed, and then it hit me that it would be so cool if HAIM would sing on the song – Este’s band that she’s in with her sisters, Danielle and Alana. And so, it just turned into this very fun mission to create a true crime revenge song.”

    Taylor’s evermore is enjoying its third nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Album Chart. A deluxe edition of the collection was released last week and features two bonus tracks, “right where you left me” and “it’s time to go.”

    Audio / TAYLOR SWIFT'S NEW COUNTRY SINGLE, "no body, no crime," IS BASED ON HER LOVE OF TRUE CRIME PROGRAMS.

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    Taylor Swift (no body, no crime) OC: …true crime revenge song. :46
    “Writing ‘no body, no crime’ I think was directly based on my love of true crime podcasts and Dateline type programs. Also, I just kind of got this melody in my head and I thought about my friend, Este. I’ve always thought her name was so cool, and so it all kind of came together as this sort of murder mystery type revenge plot. I asked my friend if I could use her name as the lead character, and she agreed, and then it hit me that it would be so cool if HAIM would sing on the song – Este’s band that she’s in with her sisters, Danielle and Alana. And so, it just turned into this very fun mission to create a true crime revenge song.”

    Audio / LINER Taylor Swift (no body, no crime) 1

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    Audio / LINER Taylor Swift (no body, no crime) 2

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  • TAYLOR SWIFT WANTED TO CONTINUE MAKING MUSIC WITH NEW ALBUM, evermore.

    Taylor Swift has been in such a creative and prolific mode, dropping not one, but two albums (folklore, evermore) in 2020, surprising her legion of fans with new music.

    She says of the reason she released her second album, evermore (which she calls the sister to folklore) so close to the release of the first was because she didn’t want to stop writing and recording songs.

    “To put some context behind why this album has come out so quickly – we just never really stopped writing songs. I mean folklore came out, but Aaron (Dessner) and Jack (Attonoff) and William Bowrey and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and I just kept on writing. We never really paused. I think we did that because it was so much fun to create, and this time is such a wild, ridiculous year, and I think we needed to create things. We didn’t really know what for,” says Taylor. “Pretty soon it became evident that this was another album, and it came together in almost the same amount of time that folklore did. So, yeah, I’ve never put out an album this quickly in succession after a brand new album, but then again I’ve never had a concept like this come to me before where I wanted to continue exploring even after an album was released. I didn’t want to move on to something else, I just wanted to keep on digging. So, evermore is out, I think it’s four-and-a-half months after folklore came out, but this is a year where I threw out a lot of rules that I used to have in my head – ‘Oh, you only put out an album once every so often’ – whatever, like I think we need music. I think I want to connect to my fans. This is stuff that I’ve written, and I’m so, so proud of it. So, I figured I’d just put it out.”

    Taylor has released “no body, no crime” from her multi-week No. 1 album, evermore, to country radio.

    Audio / Taylor Swift explains why she released her new album, evermore, just four-and-a-half months after releasing folklore.

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    Taylor Swift (concept behind context) OC: … put it out, you know? 1:13
    “So, to put some context behind why this album has come out so quickly – we just never really stopped writing songs. I mean folklore came out, but Aaron (Dessner) and Jack (Attonoff) and William Bowrey and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and I just kept on writing. We never really paused. I think we did that because it was so much fun to create, and this time is such a wild, ridiculous year, and I think we needed to create things. We didn’t really know what for. Pretty soon it became evident that this was another album, and it came together in almost the same amount of time that folklore did. So, yeah, I’ve never put out an album this quickly in succession after a brand new album, but then again I’ve never had a concept like this come to me before where I wanted to continue exploring even after an album was released. I didn’t want to move on to something else, I just wanted to keep on digging. So, evermore is out, I think it’s four-and-a-half months after folklore came out, but this is a year where I threw out a lot of rules that I used to have in my head – ‘Oh, you only put out an album once every so often’ – whatever, like I think we need music. I think I want to connect to my fans. This is stuff that I’ve written, and I’m so, so proud of it. So, I figured I’d just put it out, you know?”

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  • TAYLOR SWIFT TO DROP NEW RECORD, evermore, TONIGHT.

    This morning, Taylor Swift surprised her fans with an announcement on her socials of a new record, which features 15 new songs, coming out tonight (December 10th).

    She says, “I’m elated to tell you that my 9th studio album, and folklore’s sister record, will be out tonight at midnight eastern. It’s called evermore. To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in. I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…”

     

    The “betty” singer also revealed that she would be dropping a new music video for a song titled “willow.”

    “Tonight the story continues, as the music video for “willow” drops at midnight eastern. I’m forever grateful to the following creatives who have helped and guided me to be able to direct my own videos: Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, producer Jil Hardin, 1st AD Joe ‘Oz’ Osbourne, Co-1st AD Ev Salomon, Exec Producer Rebecca Skinner, editor Chancler Haynes, set designers Ethan Tobman and Regina Fernandez and visual effects geniuses Grant Miller and David Lebensfeld. Thank you to our medical inspector who made sure every precaution was taken for our safety. I’ll see you guys in the YouTube premiere page chat before midnight to answer some questions 🧙‍♀️

     

    As she nears her 31st birthday on December 13th, she is giving her fans a “birthday gift” of a new album. “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you. There are 15 tracks on the standard edition of evermore, but the deluxe physical edition will include two bonus tracks – “right where you left me” and “it’s time to go” ⌛️ All *digital downloads* of the album will include an exclusive, digital booklet with 16 brand new photos. You can pre-order evermore now at https://taylor.lnk.to/evermorealbum

     

    She also revealed the news on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

  • TAYLOR SWIFT’S “folklore: the long pond studio sessions” TO PREMIERE EXCLUSIVELY ON DISNEY+ ON NOVEMBER 25th.

    Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner (The National), Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) created an album that crossed genres — a musical journey that allows us to cry and laugh, and during these trying times, makes us feel like we’re not quite so alone. They recorded “folklore” thousands of miles apart from each other and had never been in the same room together…

    …until now

    folklore: the long pond studio sessions was filmed in upstate New York in September 2020 and will premiere exclusively on Disney+ on Wednesday, November 25, at 12:01AM PT. Taylor, accompanied by co-producers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff along with a guest appearance by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), performs each song in order of her critically adored, five star album, “folklore” and for the very first time, reveals the stories and secrets behind all 17 songs.

     

    “folklore: the long pond studio sessions” was directed by Taylor Swift and filmed on 6 x Lumix S1H mirrorless cameras with Leica lenses embedded in the studio, along with a one Alexa LF with an Angenieux 24-290 on a Furio robotic camera with 30+ feet of curved track.

     

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