As Taylor Swift’s star keeps rising, Pennsylvanians like to remind others with pride that the superstar hails from the Keystone State.
And, while that’s pretty cool on its own, it’s a shame that 34-year-old Taylor doesn’t have direct ties to us here in Lebanon County.
Or does she?
Well, maybe a few. But first, let’s establish her Pennsylvania roots.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on Dec. 13, 1989, in West Reading, Berks County. Her father Scott worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, while her mother Andrea worked in marketing. She has a younger brother, Austin, and she has said in interviews that her family continues to work closely with her today.
According to Britannica.com, she was 11 years old when she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game. The next year, she picked up the guitar and began to write songs.
She spent part of her childhood on the family’s Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing — inspiring a song, unimaginatively titled “Christmas Tree Farm” – and, according to Biography.com, she even rode horses competitively for a short time. But, when she was 13 years old – acting on the advice of a Lebanon County native (more on that later) – her parents sold the farm and moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, so she could focus on building a career in nearby Nashville.
What happened next?
Swift forged a development deal with RCA Records. In 2004, at age 14, she signed with Sony/ATV as a songwriter. She began performing many of her original songs at Nashville venues and met record executive Scott Borchetta – to whom she had been directed by that same Lebanon County native.
Borchetta signed Swift to his new Big Machine label. Her first single, “Tim McGraw,” was released in 2006, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 86 and peaked at No. 40.
In 2018, Swift left Big Machine and signed with Republic Records and Universal Music Group. The next year her former label, which owned the master recordings of her first six albums, was sold to Scooter Braun, a talent manager whose clients included Kanye West, with whom Swift had had a very public falling out after he interrupted her at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to claim Beyonce deserved the honor.
Swift’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Braun were fruitless, and he sold her back catalog to private investors in 2020. To reclaim control of her songs, she re-recorded and re-released much of the music on four new albums.
Her musical style quickly earned her adulation among both pop and country fans. During her career, she has produced massive hits including “Shake It Off,” “Anti-Hero,” “You Belong with Me,” “Blank Space,” “Love Story,” and “Cruel Summer.”
As of Dec. 13, according to Billboard, she had logged 232 charted hits, including 49 in the Top 10 and 138 in the Top 40. She has won 12 Grammy Awards out of 52 nominations, including six nominations for the upcoming 2024 awards.
In December 2023, Swift was named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” edging out finalists including Barbie, Vladimir Putin, and Sam Altman. The music streaming platform Spotify also deemed her its most-played artist and, according to a Bloomberg analysis, Swift now has a net worth of around $1.1 billion.
On a Forbes list of the most powerful women of 2023, Swift placed fifth. She fronted the first concert tour to gross more than $1 billion and released the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
Legislative acclaim in Harrisburg
On Dec. 13, the state House of Representatives voted (by a slim margin) to approve House Resolution 282, recognizing 2023 as the “Taylor Swift Era” in Pennsylvania. The measure celebrated her recent selection by TIME Magazine and acknowledged “her positive impact on Pennsylvania’s economy, voter registration numbers, consumer protections and pro-labor practices.”
According to the resolution, Swift “through talent, hard work and determination … has transcended the role of pop star, becoming a veritable cultural and economic force” and “shines as a role model of courage, self-acceptance and self-determination, persisting in the face of personal and professional obstacles and challenges.” It also notes that her most recent concert tour “spurred an economic boom for every city she visited, with positive impacts felt in the hospitality, travel, tourism, retail and even housing sectors.”
Lawmakers approved the resolution on Swift’s 34th birthday.
Although Lebanon County state Rep. Russ Diamond (R-102nd) has a personal connection with Swift (more on that later) and even sang a snippet of her hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” on the House floor, he was among the largely Republican base who voted against the resolution.
Still, Diamond seems to have a fond thought for the star.
“Yes, I knew her when,” he posted on Facebook on Dec. 6. “She was a young budding singer/songwriter and I pressed a couple demo CDs for her when my business was down on Main Street. Pretty sure I have a copy or two laying around somewhere….”
Comments on his post ranged from “That’s super cool Russ!” to “Was she as annoying then as she is now?” (to which Diamond replied: “She was a sweet kid.”) to “No way!!! Hope you have some good stories to share!” to “I wouldn’t brag about that.” to “That’s a worthwhile credit on the resume, not as cool as some of the PA Musician bands but still cool.”
‘A nice kid’ in Annville
Diamond’s Annville-based production company, which started as a Lebanon area recording studio in 1992 and has evolved into Raintree Multimedia, also posted a notice about TIME’s designation on Dec. 6: “Congratulations to Taylor Swift on being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year! Taylor is one of 5 Grammy nominees we’ve worked with over the last 31 years. We knew her when!”
However, Diamond told LebTown, he doesn’t recall listening to Swift’s music when his company pressed her demos.
“In the business of duplicating CDs, actually listening to the music on those recordings is not common other than a cursory review to make sure the reproduced data is a digital match for the data provided by the client,” he wrote in an email to LebTown.
“That said, I do recall listening to the first project we did for Taylor Swift at Raintree Productions, as it was sponsored by I-105, a popular country music station, and as radio support is a big deal for any artist,” he added. “Upon listening, it seemed that she was probably on the right track for success. That CD had 4 or 5 songs on it, if I recall correctly.
“The second project we did for her was a 2-song demo that she (or perhaps her parents) underwrote herself. Pretty sure she was already trying to work the Nashville scene at that point, and it was not long after that she began to gain national acclaim.”
Diamond’s personal interactions with the future star were limited, however.
“I believe she was at my office in Annville once or twice, and she struck me as a nice kid,” he recollected. “I’m guessing she was 12-14 years old. I mostly dealt with her mother, who was managing her career then.”
Taylor’s other Lebanon connection
Who knows where Taylor Swift’s career would have led her if her parents had not heeded the advice of a Lebanon County native back when she was a preteen wannabe singer?
That wise sage is none other than Pat Garrett, a country singer and guitarist of some renown who also runs an international sheepskin coat company, Sickafus Sheepskins, in Strausstown, Berks County.
Garrett was born Patrick Henry Sickafus on April 16, 1942, at Lebanon’s own Good Samaritan Hospital. His parents raised him at their home west of Bethel, which lies just east of the Lebanon County line. And, while his formative years and subsequent careers were spent largely in Berks County, he also owns a couple of local radio stations — WTPA-92.1FM in Harrisburg and WWSM-1510AM, near Palmyra.
(WWSM, by the way, ceased broadcasting after a lightning strike in July 2022 seriously damaged the transmitter at the station’s studios along Colebrook Road. The station now broadcasts exclusively through online streaming on its website.)
As lead singer for the Pat Garrett Band, Garrett has recorded country hits including “Bad Woman,” “Wild Hog,” “Sexy Ole Lady,” “Everlovin’ Woman” and “Moose Shootin’ Mama.” He opened the Pat Garrett Amphitheater in Strausstown in 1995 and, later, the Pat Garrett Roadhouse — both of which were venues for a young Taylor Swift.
He recalls working in the roadhouse one day when “a fellow came in and wanted to do karaoke in there. I like live music … but he said he’d do the first one for free.” The price was right, so Garrett gave it a try — and it caught on, especially after he got the notion to run a 16-week, all-ages karaoke contest with the grand prize being an opening set before a touring headliner at the amphitheater.
That’s a pretty big deal for a rising country star. Back in those days, Garrett’s amphitheater hosted the likes of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, and Merle Haggard.
The contest ramped up the roadhouse’s profile significantly, Garrett said. And one evening, 11-year-old Taylor came in with a large group of family and friends. Needless to say, she won the contest and earned a brief slot on stage before a Charlie Daniels concert, Garrett said. That led to gigs at places like the Bloomsburg Fair and Knoebels Park, and a recurring spot on stage with Garrett, his wife and vocalist/bassist Suzy Dalton, and the Pat Garrett Band.
“She played a half-dozen shows with us,” Garrett told LebTown. “She did good.”
She ‘was acceptable’
Garrett’s earliest impressions of Taylor were favorable, but he admitted in a telephone interview with LebTown that he wasn’t blown away.
“She was always a show-biz gal,” he said. “When she first started singing, she wasn’t killer, but it was acceptable. She got better over the years. Now she’s queen of the world.”
Over time, he said, Garrett “became very friendly with her parents. Her dad was very influential in her career. … If it wasn’t for her dad and mom, she might still be singing karaoke someplace. Maybe not.”
Taylor “did very good, she worked very hard,” Garrett said. But asked if he ever imagined she’d go this far, he was succinct in his response.
“No.”
That didn’t stop him from offering advice that would dramatically affect her career.
“I remember her dad came in after I’d known them about a year. He said, ‘What am I going to do with this kid?’ I told him, ‘In Hershey they make bars, in Detroit they make cars, and in Nashville they make stars.’
“He came back in a few months later and said, ‘Well, we’re going.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, where?’ He said ‘Nashville.’ … I figured they’d go for a month or two. He said no, they’re going for the rest of their lives.”
Back in those days, Garrett said, Scott Swift was his financial adviser and, even from Nashville, “he used to call me several times a week. He’d talk to me 5 minutes about finances and another 55 minutes about Taylor.”
Some more good advice
Not only did Garrett direct Taylor’s family to Nashville, he also pointed her toward a man who was instrumental in making her famous: Scott Borchetta, founder of Big Machine Records.
“I told (Taylor’s father) who he was — the hottest promotion man in the business,” Garrett said. “He was putting a new label together, Big Machine.”
Garrett, who had recorded with Polygram Records in Nashville, said he knew Borchetta’s father, Mike, who had worked in record promotions for record labels including Capitol, RCA, and Mercury before moving to Nashville to start his own independent record promotion company. He downplayed his involvement in getting Swift and Borchetta together, though. “I just mentioned his name. … I tried to help wherever I could.”
The biggest boost to Taylor’s career — talent aside, Garrett said — was her father’s financial wherewithal.
“He put $5 million together to back her,” he explained. “That’s one thing a lot of people don’t have, that backing. … He was able to fly her around to visit radio stations, pay publicists — that’s something ordinary people don’t have.”
In any case, Borchetta started Big Machine in 2005 with just 13 employees and Taylor Swift as the label’s first signed artist.
Over the next 12 years or so, Taylor recorded and released six albums through the label: “Taylor Swift” (2006), “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010), “Red” (2012), “1989” (2014), and “Reputation” (2017).
Then came the much-publicized hullabaloo with Scooter Braun. In the years since, Taylor has re-recorded four albums: “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” and “1989,” each with “(Taylor’s Version)” added to the title and each debuting at No. 1 on Billboard.
Will their paths cross again?
We asked Garrett is he ever still hears from Taylor or her parents. He hesitated before answering.
“No,” he admitted. “She’s too busy to be calling me up.”
Still, he said he feels some degree of paternal pride in her success, which he played some part in fostering.
“Oh sure. I was glad to be able to help,” Garrett said.
But he wouldn’t mind a professional reunion, if his song “Just Taylor” is any indication.
On his YouTube channel, Garrett uploaded a video for the light-hearted song on Feb. 28, 2017. When they first met, he wrote in the video’s description, “She says, ‘Hi I’m Taylor.’ I said, ‘Hi, Taylor. What’s your last name?’ She says, ‘Just Taylor.’ I said ‘I’m just Pat.’ The title of this song was inspired by that first encounter.”
The video is full of photographs and video clips from both of their careers, including a few brief glimpses of a very young Taylor Swift performing with Garrett’s band.
“This song is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek, but also heart-felt tribute to that little golden-haired cherub who totally believed in herself!” Garrett said in the description.
At one point in the lyrics, he sings: “Hey Taylor, I know you’re a busy gal / but do you ever think about them early days and your country music pals? / Yeah, ol’ Pat Garrett was right by your side, helping you make it through. / Hey Taylor, I’ve been waitin’ on a call from you.”
Seriously, he added, “I wish her all the luck in the world. Although I guess at this point she doesn’t need luck anymore. She has things pretty well in hand. I hope she has continued success as long as she wants it.”
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