Taylor Swift was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this week and in her acceptance speech discussed the pivotal importance of a garden office music studio at an early stage in her career. Here is the relevant section:
"And then my most favorite was a place called Jody Williams Music, an independent publishing company that was located in the little craftsman house.
"And, you know, let's say the year is like 2005 in this memory. My mom would pick me up from Hendersonville High School, drive me downtown and drop me off and I'd scamper in the front of Jody Williams Music and I'd say hi to Katherine who worked at the front and sometimes her boyfriend Eric would be there visiting.
"Things have gone great for them. They've got a couple kids, married like 20 years now. His full name is Eric Church, just for clarity. But then I'd run up the stairs and I would plop down on the couch in front of Liz Rose in this room that was painted red.
"I'd say, 'Liz, this happened at school today. I've got a hook that I want to like, you know, we've got to write this thing.' And she'd get her notebook and we'd just write so fast.
"And when we finished with the song, you know, I'd kind of jog out the back of this house to the backyard where there was a garden shed. And in that garden shed was a one-person studio where Jody Williams Music's favorite demo producer, Nathan Chapman, was making demos.
"And I would run in, and Nathan would play every single instrument on these demos, and he interpreted my music so intuitively that later on I would fight for him to produce my entire first album."
Pic credit: Ronald Woan via Flickr
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