The Men of Taylor Swift's Tour 'Speak Now'

If Taylor Swift's appreciation of men wasn't obvious from her catalog of hits, then her selection of tourmates should do the job. The lineup for the North American leg of the 21-year-old's Speak Now World Tour includes Christian band Needtobreathe, as well as a rotation of men including Frankie Ballard, Adam Brand, Danny Gokey, Hunter Hayes, Josh Kelley, Randy Montana, David Nail, James Wesley and Charlie Worsham. The Boot sat down with these fellas to talk all things Taylor, and they did nothing but sing her praises.

"She's a sweet girl," Danny tells The Boot. "We did a photo shoot with her, and that's where I got to learn how big of a heart she has. I'd seen her before, but I'd never got to talk to her before. Getting [to know] her heart, her character and who she is, honestly blew me away."

"I met Taylor at [the] photo shoot, and she was great," Randy agrees. "She was so nice and complimentary and personable. You get why she's as big as she is. She always remembers people. You walk away from a conversation with her going, 'Man, she's really great.' I'm sure she has that impression on everyone."

"She is one of my heroes," Hunter admits. "We have a lot of mutual business friends so we figured out a way to buy an iPod nano and put a bunch of my demos on it and a video from me saying, 'I'm a big fan. I just want to give this to you, if you have time, to listen to my music that would be great.' I didn't think she'd have time, she's a bit busy. [laughs] I met her at the BMI Awards shortly thereafter and she was so kind, complimentary. She had obviously heard the music, she dug it, and she was really cool."

That iPod could quite possibly have gotten Hunter his spot on the tour.

"When I found out that she actually hand-picked us, that was mind-blowing that she liked my music," James says. "It's a big compliment."

A compliment from Taylor is nothing new to David. In 2009, the Missouri native's world turned upside down when the headliner tweeted that his then-single 'Red Light' was her "new favorite." "Taylor told me [at the photo shoot], 'I love 'Let it Rain.' It's so good. You're on fire! I'm so happy for you,'" he remembers. "I looked right at her and said, 'You mind tweeting that?' [laughs] I'm not sure if she got exactly what I was referring to, because she's like me and she's tweeted 3000 times since then."

It's the 'Mean' singer's complimentary nature that leads the openers to accept that she did choose personally choose all of them. "I completely believe it," Hunter admits. "She invited all of her opening acts out to a stop, and we got to meet the crew, the band and her. She's straight up came up and said, 'So glad to have you on the tour. I hope you really love the tour. We love having you." That made me feel really good."

Hunter wasn't the only man to be bused out for that opening show in Omaha, Neb. "That show is like Broadway meets Cirque du Soleil," James reveals. "It's incredible. A lot of it is her ideas, too. She has these big dreams for when she stands up there, and she's a great role model on top of all that. A lot of young girls look up to her, and I think that's awesome."

Having an artist who appeals to the younger generation, but is also someone their parents don't mind them emulating, is important. "I got to see it before my daughter, and it was great," James reveals. "You saw mothers and fathers there with their little girls. It's a great feeling. There was a man and his daughter waiting for the show to start -- this little girl was probably five -- and she was so giddy that this show was getting ready to start. Her dad couldn't take his eyes off of her because she was so excited. It's amazing that that's what music does. It would be an awful boring world without music."

The opportunity to open for the genre's biggest star is one that Randy plans to use as a learning experience. "I love watching anybody's show," he explains. "You pick up different things that people do on stage when you see it work. That's how we all learn. It may be something the band does or it may be something that they do personally on stage, an action or something. You pick up little things that would work for you. You can't go too far outside of the box. And Taylor's obviously done a lot right to get where she's at."

Another unique aspect is the camaraderie that the men share with one another. "I'm good friends with David Nail and Frankie Ballard," Randy reveals. "I know Charlie Worsham really well. We're all in that same spot. They're all just as excited. They can't wait to get out there. It's big for all of our careers, especially just starting out. It's great exposure."

Randy even co-wrote James' current single, 'Didn't I.' "I've know Randy's dad for a long time," James details. "His dad is a songwriter too, and a great guy. He's been brought up in those roots of writing and everything. It was cool when I found out that he was one of the co-writers on the song."

One big difference in the men of the Speak Now tour, however, is their off-stage motives. "If there's anything I hope to achieve out of this tour, I just want to know the grounds to which you have to achieve before she writes a song about you," David jokes. "Do you have to go on a few dates, and if you never go on another, do you get a song? Or, does love have to be in the picture? Do you have to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the person? I want to know exactly what the stipulations are. Maybe it's a blanket line, like if we get to this point and you do me wrong, you're getting a song."

Don't worry, folks, David isn't curious because he's interested in the superstar as anything more than a friend. "I've always been very curious about that, mainly because I want to be able to tell my wife Jake Gyllenhaal is a jerk and he really did her wrong and this is how he did it," he says. "My wife is like everybody else, she's sucked into this US Weekly world and she's dying to know. She's got her conspiracy theories, too, and I want to be able to put them to bed."

Frankie has also thought about what would constitute getting a song written about him. "That's only if I start dating her, I guess," he laughs. "I don't know if it's good or bad for my career if she writes a song about me ..."

Source

The Meaning Behind Taylor Swift's Song 'Last Kiss'

Everyone knows Taylor Swift is superstitious. If you didn't already know, her lucky number is 13. So when I got her new album a few months ago, the awesome Speak Now, I couldn't help but skip through the other songs to listen to track #13.

Knowing how unique Taylor is, I figured track 13 would probably be her favorite song on the album, right? All I know, is that everyone I've talked to including myself, thinks 'Last Kiss' is def the best song. So when I listened to it, I was amazed by the lyrics alone. If this girl couldn't sing, she'd definitely have a future in song writing!

From the blogs online and if you can decode her secret messages, it's rumored that 'Last Kiss' is about Joe Jonas.

We all know they've had their issues and Taylor was hurt over the alleged 27-second break up phone call she talked about on Ellen DeGeneres' TV show. Basically proving 'Last Kiss' is about the Jo-Bro, the music in the beginning of the song plays until the :27 second mark and then she starts singing. Done on purpose? Hmmm.

She also references July 9th and how she ran off an airplane to see this special guy. Apparently, she was flying into Dallas to see a Jonas Brothers concert in 2008, makes sense huh? Also, if you look at all the capital letters in her CD's booklet, you can see that for track 13 it spells out, "Forever and Always," a title of a song she admitted was about Joe.

'Last Kiss' is my favorite song on the album. Not because it's about Joe Jonas but the lyrics are awesome and you can totally feel her pain in the song. Because it is track 13, I feel it's probably Taylor's favorite song on the album as well, and I can obviously see why.

I wrote this, not to pick sides on the Tay/Joe break up but to shed light on a kick butt song that I think many of you should check out and that Taylor should def release as her next single. I've played it over and over for my friends and the majority of them agree on its awesomeness (and we're in our twenties!), making some actually go out and buy her album so they could check out her other songs as well. My sister, a 13-year-old Never Shout Never and The Ready Set fan, also loves her now, simply after hearing this particular song.

In typical Taylor fashion, there are tons of other hidden messages in 'Speak Now.' Although she won't come out and say who each song is about, it's neat to see an artist open up so much on an album...truly a piece of art.


Source

Taylor Swift Says Broadway Inspired Her 'Speak Now' Tour

In another era, it was enough for artists from Hank Williams to Randy Travis to show up in a city, unpack their gear and play.

Stage production for Willie Nelson was simply unfurling a Texas flag and launching into "Whiskey River."

But as country has moved to bigger venues in a high-tech world, the heft of tour productions and the volume of add-ons has increased. Brooks & Dunn drenched fans near the front with confetti, Kenny Chesney extended the length of his runways, Garth Brooks flew out over the audience, Reba McEntire incorporated dancers and elaborate costume changes, Brad Paisley designed his own cartoon backdrops and Carrie Underwood this past year sang from the back of a pickup that ran a loop suspended over the heads of floor patrons.

It's likely that all or most of those artists started their own concert-going experiences by attending more standard-variety country shows in their youth, then witnessing the growth in the genre's concert tech as artists from the Oak Ridge Boys to Shania Twain borrowed from pop and rock playbooks to create their visuals.

By the time Taylor Swift, born in 1989, came of concert-going age, large video screens and more sophisticated lighting systems were standard for arena-sized tours. As a result, she represents a new generation for whom massive-scale country concert productions are not just an add-on. They're a natural part of the country-arena experience.

Swift launched her Speak Now Tour in the U.S. this last weekend, playing Omaha May 27-28 and Des Moines May 29, and the two-hour production was an overwhelming experience. Lighted trees, pyrotechnics, dancers popping up from the stage, aerialists twirling above the eight-piece band, nine costume changes, multiple set changes, a floor-sweeping mime, confetti, a satellite stage and a small, gazebo-ish lift that took her over the crowd were just some of the details that turned an evening into a spectacle.

In essence, one of the genre's most ambitious acts has created one of the genre's most ambitious tours, drawing from country, pop, rock, Broadway and likely "Glee" to create an ever-changing production. Watch Swift and the backdrop changed; watch the backdrop and Swift was suddenly in a different outfit. And just when there was a lull-boom!-fireworks exploded or dancers appeared out of giant bells.

"The first time that I fell in love with performing is when I went to go see theater in my hometown in Pennsylvania," Swift said after the performance at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. "I would see it done incredibly well -- going to see Broadway plays of 'Wicked' -- things like that just really inspired me from an early age to love putting on a theatrical performance where there are storylines and characters, and you're always seeing a scene change into another scene. I love telling a story in any way possible."

Akin in pacing to a Pink Floyd concert, Speak Now flowed practically uninterrupted between songs, costumes and sets. Historically, country hasn't always matched up well to big productions-sometimes the ambitions have seemed disconnected from the music or its spirit. But in Swift's case, the end result is a fully realized concept. Swift, as a singer-songwriter, wrote all the music and conceived the show's themes and visuals, limited only by the ways in which her stage designer could fit it all in.

So while a production that incorporates snow, ballet and an Appalachian front porch could come across as hokey and disjointed in another's hands, Swift managed to pull off a certain cohesiveness.

"We spent months going over the set list and just thinking of where things would go, which ones would segue well into other songs and how we could tell individual stories," she noted. "I didn't want to tell one big story. I wanted each song to have its own story."

Swift benefited from turning her final rehearsal into a fundraiser, amassing $750,000 for tornado relief May 21 at Bridgestone Arena. That show, which came a day prior to winning three Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, went off smoothly, perhaps providing something of an omen for the opening weekend.

"We had a few costumes that weren't finished yet at that point, but other than that everything was the way the show is," she notes. "That rehearsal went incredibly well. I never expected for it to go on without a hitch, but it did and after the show we were all just jumping up and down, screaming."

It opens up a new possibility: that the final rehearsal of a tour could be routinely turned into a ticketed event.

Other artists might pick up on the idea. But Swift sounded less than enthusiastic about it.

"I have no idea if I would ever want to make it something that's an annual thing," she said. "It was so perfect for the moment. And you've gotta live life that way. When moments pop up and things pop up, take these things on a case-by-case basis."

In this case, there's an enormous amount of detail that worked to make the Speak Now Tour a sort of next step in country concert presentation, right down to the roman-numeral XIII on the bell props and the fairy dust (small bits of confetti) that dropped from her lift over the audience during "Love Story." It blended the pacing, the music and the artist's personality in a way that transfixed many in the crowd. It's a production-and an ability-that her peers in the business will continue to study.


Source

Taylor Swift Writes Lyrics on Her Arm for Speak Now Tour Kick-Off

Taylor Swift was super excited to appear on stage for the first night of her Speak Now tour, but the singer has something written along her entire arm. It turns out that the words were lyrics from 'Keep Your Head Up,' a song by one of the country star's favorite artists, Andy Grammer.

"Well, good evening, Omaha, Nebraska," she said to the audience when she first stepped on stage. "I'm Taylor and welcome to the first night of the Speak Now World Tour."

The words on the 21-year-old's left arm read: "You gotta keep your head up but you can let your hair down." The line is from the chorus of the singer-songwriter's upbeat tune, which is featured on his just-released self-titled EP.

On Taylor's right hand was the singer's lucky number 13, but she didn't need any luck in Omaha. The crowd ate up her two-hour set, which included plenty of 'Speak Now' tracks like 'Sparks Fly,' 'Mine' and 'Mean.'

The production included nine musicians, eight dancers, and elaborate sets to help create visuals like a wedding during 'Speak Now' and a winter landscape during 'Back to December.'

"It's very theatrical," she told People about the production of her tour. "[It's] all about portraying songs like I see them in my head. With all the pyro and lighting I've always wanted on tour, it's like a dream come true."

Source

TAYLOR SWIFT TOUR INSPIRED BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

Taylor Swift will dazzle fans attending her summer (11) tour with a Cirque du Soleil-inspired stage show.

The “Mine” hitmaker has modelled her Speak Now concerts on the famous Canadian circus troupe and will entertain attendees with aerialists, dancers and rainbow-coloured glow sticks.

She tells People magazine, “It’s very theatrical. (It’s) all about portraying songs like I see them in my head. With all the pyro and lighting I’ve always wanted on tour, it’s like a dream come true.”

Swift kicks off the North American leg of her trek on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Are you planning on going to the Speak Now tour? Are you excited?

Source

Taylor Swift Wants To Thank Fans 'Personally' On Speak Now Tour

It's a big week for Taylor Swift. Not only did she premiere her "Story of Us" video Tuesday on MTV, but she also kicks off her Speak Now Tour on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska. When MTV News' Sway sat down with the country/pop superstar following her video premiere, she let fans in on what to expect from the stadium show.

"We get to have such groovy, cool stuff happening," she said. "I've never had pyro before. I've never had aerialists before. It's got this grand staircase. The stage in itself looks like an old-world theater. I can't believe we get to play stadiums. I'm so excited about this tour. I want to live on that stage. I hope people leave the concert feeling like they know you better."

Swift looks at this tour as the ultimate "thank you" letter to her fans for the success Speak Now has had. "That's why I'm so blown away. That's why I can't wait to go out on tour and thank them personally," she said.

Before the official tour kickoff, Swift gave some lucky fans a taste of the show during a charity event last Saturday in Nashville. She opened up her final Speak Now dress rehearsal to fans and gave the proceeds to tornado victims.

"It was one of the coolest things. Honestly, we thought our first show was going to be a week later, [but] watching the news and seeing the damage, it was just really emotional for me and a lot of the dancers and crew," she recalled. "So I felt like, if there was any way I could help out, why not sell tickets to that? And so it turned out it was something we could do. Putting on, pretty much, our first show and having it go so well [and making] over $750,000, it was so exciting."

Source