Taylor Swift's self-titled debut CD, released October 24, 2006
Photo courtesy of Big Machine Records

October 19, 2006--Days away from the October 24 release of her self-titled debut album, 16-year-old Taylor Swift stands on the edge of stardom. And she might just have a broken computer to thank for it.

"I learned to play guitar when this guy came over to fix my computer," Taylor tells GACTV.com. "He saw that I had (an acoustic) in the corner, and he goes, 'Do you know how to play that? You want me to teach you some chords?’

I was like, ‘Yeah, sure!’ So he taught me three chords."

Three chords. As Hall of Fame songwriter Harlan Howard once famously noted, if you know three chords – you’re well on your way to writing country music. To complete the equation, all you need is the truth. And the truth, as Taylor’s mother Andrea says, is something the teenager has been seeking since she was old enough to ask a question.

"I remember Scott (Taylor’s father) coming home from work and I would just be mentally exhausted," says Andrea. "From day one, Taylor was always trying to figure out how other people thought and what they were doing and why they were doing it. That was probably an early telltale sign that she had the makings of a songwriter."

Already armed with an acute curiosity for the human condition and a gift for writing poetry (she won a national contest in 4th grade), it did not take long for Taylor to put her newfound knowledge of the guitar neck to good use. Within minutes of memorizing those first three chords, the 12-year-old applied the truth as she knew it to music. Before she had laid her head on her pillow that night, she had written her first song...and changed the course of her young life.

Taylor Swift Photo Courtesy of Big Machine Records

Lyrics became an obsession. She found writing songs was a way to process the intense thoughts and feelings she was experiencing as she walked the halls of her old middle school in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Before long she was singing and practicing guitar for hours every afternoon. Her total focus on music, however, was a little puzzling to her peers.

"I sang country music," recalls Taylor. "I played guitar. In class I would sit there writing down lyrics. And I don’t think they got that, really."

Taylor slowly found herself growing more and more distant from her classmates. But that sense of alienation, while painful at times, proved to be inspiring. "I found myself watching their reactions and their emotions mostly to figure out what I was doing so wrong. But then I realized if I could watch these people and write it all down, it would make a good song." The result was "The Outside," an early Swift composition so strong, it is on her new album.

"When she started writing music, some of the first things she wrote about was being unhappy and left out," Andrea remembers. "But it was an outlet, so I was thrilled that she found a way to express it and let it go."

As Taylor become more determined to follow her dreams of being a country music artist, the Swift family made the inevitable move to Nashville. It wasn’t long before her talents – especially her writing -- caught the attention of Music Row.

"I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest with you," says Scott Borchetta, president and founder of Big Machine Records. He signed Taylor last year after her demo tape found its way to the top of the considerable pile on his desk. "There’s something about her songwriting that’s just extraordinary. She has everyday life come through and it comes out through this amazing filter. I’ve had the good fortune to be working with a lot of great songwriters. And I’ll put her in the room with anybody."

One person who has been in the room with Taylor is Liz Rose, a Nashville writer who has collaborated with her on several songs, including her debut single and first hit, "Tim McGraw." "We wrote every Tuesday at four in the afternoon," says Rose. "She’d blow into the office and you’d hear about her day at school -- this is what happened to some girl or some guy. She’d grab a handful of chocolate, walk into the writer’s room and shut the door. Until she got into that room, she was teenager. But once that door closed--she was a writer."

For Rose, those Tuesday afternoons would prove to be her easiest writing appointment of the week. "She always came in with an idea," marvels Rose. "Most of her songs are about something she has just gone through that day or that weekend. With ‘Tim McGraw’ she came in with the idea and melody. She knew exactly what she wanted. She is so fast and so good. But it’s not that she’s in a hurry. It’s that she’s got to get it out."

"I laugh when people call me a co-writer," continues Rose. "I just take dictation."

The response to her first single, which is currently a Top 20 hit, took Taylor totally by surprise. "I wrote this song with Liz on piano in 15 minutes after school," she remembers. "We played it for Scott, the president of my label, on a fluke -- 'Hey! Listen to this song I wrote called "Tim McGraw.'

"He looked at me and said, 'That’s your first single.' I’m like, ‘Well. That’s how that works, then.’ It never really occurred to me that the song would be so relatable."

Thanks to a strong presence on the Internet, Taylor is able to know first hand just how many fans are relating to her music. And the numbers are staggering. She already has over two million hits on her MySpace page. And this was before a single copy of her album was placed on a shelf. "I’m a MySpace freak," Taylor admits. "I’m absolutely obsessed with it." If possible, that might be an understatement. Taylor spends time personally answering over 100 emails a night from fans, at times staying up so late her parents are compelled to shoo her away from the computer and get some sleep. Still, she wishes she could do more.

"My fans have done so much for me and have been pulling for me from the very beginning. It kills me that I can’t go out to every single person in some way and say thank you so much and shake their hand."

"They come on [MySpace] and tell their life story or why this song has meant so much to them," adds Andrea. "They're sharing their lives with Taylor."

Through her music, Taylor is returning the favor. She wrote every song on her debut album. It is an impressive accomplishment for any country artist, much less for someone who could be writing term papers. And with every song, Taylor is sharing with her fans some aspect of her life: a special moment, an emotion, a love she’s gained or lost. In her own words, Taylor Swift tells her truth.

And her fans are thankful she learned those three chords.