by Josh Sewell
Addison, my oldest daughter, will celebrate her 13th birthday in a few months, so I’m still trying
to make as many childhood memories with her as I can. I know it’s only a matter of time before she’s a moody teenager who’s too cool to hang out with her dad, so I have to make this time count.
She’s changed a lot over the years, trying out various hobbies, fashion trends, television shows, music genres, etc. But one thing that has remained constant since she was a toddler is her love for Taylor Swift.
Since Addison was old enough to talk, she’s known the words to most of Swift’s songs. However, her fandom really exploded in October 2014, when the country artist turned pop singer released her fifth album, 1989, the same month my daughter turned four. Within a few weeks, she’d memorized every song on the CD (remember those?) I bought for her.
It was around that time I learned Swift would be performing at the Georgia Dome (rest in peace) in 2015, so I figured I’d be dad of the year and get tickets to what would be my kid’s first concert. I was still so new to the world of Swiftie fandom I thought I was being proactive – instead, I was too dumb to realize tickets had sold out within hours of going on sale.
Time for an alternate plan. Over the years, I’d read countless stories about how much Swift loves her fans. She has surprised some of them at bridal showers. She staged an impromptu photo shoot with a young girl she crossed paths with while jogging in Nashville. She helped a teen girl out of a rowboat in Central Park and, upon learning the girl and her friend were headed to Chipotle, handed them some cash to buy lunch.
I decided to plead my case to Swift’s publicists, the wonderful Tree Paine and Dana Lobb. I tracked down their contact info and wrote a brief e-mail telling them about Addison and how incredible it would be if her favorite artist got to be her first concert experience. It was a shot in the dark and I’m a writer from a small Georgia town, so I didn’t expect to hear back. Instead, Paine quickly responded and told me we’d have tickets waiting for us on the big night. It’s still one of my daughter’s most memorable moments.
Fast forward to the great Ticketmaster debacle of 2022. When Swift announced her Eras Tour, the first time she’d be performing on a large scale post-Covid, her fans crashed the company’s website so hard that it prompted congressional hearings. I reached out to Paine one more time and – once again – Swift’s organization proved how committed they are to her fans.
Last Sunday, my family joined thousands of other Swifties at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the artist’s final Atlanta show on this tour: an epic three-hour performance that blew our minds from the moment she took the stage. Our seats were incredible – she performed her acoustic set of surprise songs only a few hundred feet from us – and Addison got to sing so loud that she didn’t have much of a voice the next day.
Swift opened with one of my favorites, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” and followed it up with several other songs from Lover. That makes sense, considering the pandemic kept her from touring with that album. She followed it up with three songs from her second album Fearless, which was as far back as she went in her discography.
One of my only complaints is that a show centered around the eras of Swift’s career omitted anything from her 2006 debut album. I get it – she’s a completely different artist than she was as a teenager, but her first album had several killer songs. I would’ve loved to hear “Tim McGraw,” “Picture to Burn,” “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “A Place in This World,” “Should’ve Said No” or “Our Song” live, especially since the 33-year-old performer has a much stronger voice than she did back then (as evidenced by her recently re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” of Red and Fearless).
Before her concert on Sunday night, I would’ve said that evermore was my least favorite Swift album. Not that it’s inherently bad, but it came so fast on the heels of folklore that I didn’t have time to truly explore it before Midnights came out. (If nothing else, the pandemic turned out to be a prolific period for her.) However, after hearing her perform “‘tis the damn season,” “willow,” “marjorie,” “champagne problems” and “tolerate it,” I have a newfound appreciation for those songs.
She followed that set with four songs from reputation, which might be her most underrated work. A rough-edged departure from her previous albums, it has grown over time into one of her most celebrated. Granted, the tour film being available on Netflix probably helped in that respect, but hearing Swift sing “Delicate,” “Don’t Blame Me” and “Look What You Made Me Do” only a few hundred feet away definitely communicated the power of her music and lyrics in a far more personal way.
After that, she sang several songs from folklore (including my favorites “the 1” and “betty,” which might be the closest she’s come to a country record since Speak Now) and 1989, which led into the most buzzed-about element of the Eras tour: her brief surprise song setlist. On every tour date, Swift devotes two acoustic versions of songs she rarely or never plays live.
At this particular performance, she played “I Bet You Think About Me” on guitar and “How You Get the Girl” on piano. They might’ve been the best part of the entire show – I honestly would’ve loved three hours of intimate, acoustic songs. Part of me hoped she’d sing my all-time favorite: “Breathe” from Fearless, a duet she performed with Colbie Caillat back in 2008. But I can’t hold that against her. I’m probably the only person who even knows that song exists.
I can’t express how much Swift has progressed as an artist. Pretty much everyone knows she’s an insightful student of marketing, shaping a precisely cultivated public persona. But she has also improved as a singer, musician and dancer. A quick glance of past performances on YouTube will prove how much her confidence and stage presence has increased over the years.
Because she achieved stardom so early in her career, it’s easy (and unfairly dismissive) for her detractors to view her as an eternal teenager. If nothing else, the Eras tour proves that Swift has embraced her sexiness. I don’t mean for that to come across as creepy or derogatory – it’s absolutely a period of empowerment. What’s more, she has shown Addison that settling for the standard roles of women in society isn’t enough. It’s better to excel while showing off your talent for songwriting and instrumentation. Way to go, Taylor Swift.
to make as many childhood memories with her as I can. I know it’s only a matter of time before she’s a moody teenager who’s too cool to hang out with her dad, so I have to make this time count.
She’s changed a lot over the years, trying out various hobbies, fashion trends, television shows, music genres, etc. But one thing that has remained constant since she was a toddler is her love for Taylor Swift.
Since Addison was old enough to talk, she’s known the words to most of Swift’s songs. However, her fandom really exploded in October 2014, when the country artist turned pop singer released her fifth album, 1989, the same month my daughter turned four. Within a few weeks, she’d memorized every song on the CD (remember those?) I bought for her.
It was around that time I learned Swift would be performing at the Georgia Dome (rest in peace) in 2015, so I figured I’d be dad of the year and get tickets to what would be my kid’s first concert. I was still so new to the world of Swiftie fandom I thought I was being proactive – instead, I was too dumb to realize tickets had sold out within hours of going on sale.
Time for an alternate plan. Over the years, I’d read countless stories about how much Swift loves her fans. She has surprised some of them at bridal showers. She staged an impromptu photo shoot with a young girl she crossed paths with while jogging in Nashville. She helped a teen girl out of a rowboat in Central Park and, upon learning the girl and her friend were headed to Chipotle, handed them some cash to buy lunch.
I decided to plead my case to Swift’s publicists, the wonderful Tree Paine and Dana Lobb. I tracked down their contact info and wrote a brief e-mail telling them about Addison and how incredible it would be if her favorite artist got to be her first concert experience. It was a shot in the dark and I’m a writer from a small Georgia town, so I didn’t expect to hear back. Instead, Paine quickly responded and told me we’d have tickets waiting for us on the big night. It’s still one of my daughter’s most memorable moments.
Fast forward to the great Ticketmaster debacle of 2022. When Swift announced her Eras Tour, the first time she’d be performing on a large scale post-Covid, her fans crashed the company’s website so hard that it prompted congressional hearings. I reached out to Paine one more time and – once again – Swift’s organization proved how committed they are to her fans.
Last Sunday, my family joined thousands of other Swifties at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the artist’s final Atlanta show on this tour: an epic three-hour performance that blew our minds from the moment she took the stage. Our seats were incredible – she performed her acoustic set of surprise songs only a few hundred feet from us – and Addison got to sing so loud that she didn’t have much of a voice the next day.
Swift opened with one of my favorites, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” and followed it up with several other songs from Lover. That makes sense, considering the pandemic kept her from touring with that album. She followed it up with three songs from her second album Fearless, which was as far back as she went in her discography.
One of my only complaints is that a show centered around the eras of Swift’s career omitted anything from her 2006 debut album. I get it – she’s a completely different artist than she was as a teenager, but her first album had several killer songs. I would’ve loved to hear “Tim McGraw,” “Picture to Burn,” “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “A Place in This World,” “Should’ve Said No” or “Our Song” live, especially since the 33-year-old performer has a much stronger voice than she did back then (as evidenced by her recently re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” of Red and Fearless).
Before her concert on Sunday night, I would’ve said that evermore was my least favorite Swift album. Not that it’s inherently bad, but it came so fast on the heels of folklore that I didn’t have time to truly explore it before Midnights came out. (If nothing else, the pandemic turned out to be a prolific period for her.) However, after hearing her perform “‘tis the damn season,” “willow,” “marjorie,” “champagne problems” and “tolerate it,” I have a newfound appreciation for those songs.
She followed that set with four songs from reputation, which might be her most underrated work. A rough-edged departure from her previous albums, it has grown over time into one of her most celebrated. Granted, the tour film being available on Netflix probably helped in that respect, but hearing Swift sing “Delicate,” “Don’t Blame Me” and “Look What You Made Me Do” only a few hundred feet away definitely communicated the power of her music and lyrics in a far more personal way.
After that, she sang several songs from folklore (including my favorites “the 1” and “betty,” which might be the closest she’s come to a country record since Speak Now) and 1989, which led into the most buzzed-about element of the Eras tour: her brief surprise song setlist. On every tour date, Swift devotes two acoustic versions of songs she rarely or never plays live.
At this particular performance, she played “I Bet You Think About Me” on guitar and “How You Get the Girl” on piano. They might’ve been the best part of the entire show – I honestly would’ve loved three hours of intimate, acoustic songs. Part of me hoped she’d sing my all-time favorite: “Breathe” from Fearless, a duet she performed with Colbie Caillat back in 2008. But I can’t hold that against her. I’m probably the only person who even knows that song exists.
I can’t express how much Swift has progressed as an artist. Pretty much everyone knows she’s an insightful student of marketing, shaping a precisely cultivated public persona. But she has also improved as a singer, musician and dancer. A quick glance of past performances on YouTube will prove how much her confidence and stage presence has increased over the years.
Because she achieved stardom so early in her career, it’s easy (and unfairly dismissive) for her detractors to view her as an eternal teenager. If nothing else, the Eras tour proves that Swift has embraced her sexiness. I don’t mean for that to come across as creepy or derogatory – it’s absolutely a period of empowerment. What’s more, she has shown Addison that settling for the standard roles of women in society isn’t enough. It’s better to excel while showing off your talent for songwriting and instrumentation. Way to go, Taylor Swift.
Reach out to Josh Sewell on Twitter @IAmJoshSewell
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