Taylor Swift

When seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift takes the stage at the Grizzly Rose this weekend, fans will have the opportunity to witness a superstar in the making. Swift is one of a rare breed of female solo artists who put their own material front and center, and her self-titled debut showcases songwriting that draws heavily from the experiences of being a young American. Love, longing, and loss are all stalwarts in country music, but Swift captures these subjects with storytelling that is surprisingly unfiltered and brimming with the kind of excitement and anticipation sometimes lost to older, more experienced songwriters. She wears her heartache on her sleeve on the genuinely aching “Teardrops on My Guitar,” as true a ballad of unrequited love as can be found, and she’s at the top of her game when she lets her honeysuckle-sweet charm shine through on refreshing up-tempos like “Our Song” and the kick-ass tell-off “Another Picture to Burn.” More witty, feisty and edgy then her first few singles might suggest, Swift is the real deal.