OMFG! Taylor goes ghetto and girly and tuff in one breath.

[koganbot]

Finally saw a clip of Taylor Swift at the ACMs, and the staging is astonishing. She starts acoustic, with a wicked strum, in a hoodie and jeans, and then she jettisons the guitar, her homies join her, and then OMFG.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I wonder if she'll ever release one of those covers as a single.

Is there no outlet in the US for pop or country acts to do (properly recorded and produced) radio sessions?

If TS was British (bear with me, I realise if she were, she wouldn't be doing country) she'd have done at least one session for Radio 2 by now and likely as not you wouldn't have to rely on YouTube to (half) hear this stuff.

[koganbot]

People can do radio-station sessions, but there's no real equivalent to a national radio station (NPR, which is "public" radio, i.e., runs worthy stuff supposedly of redeeming social value, and is partly supported by public funds, is national but not all the affiliates pick up every program, and NPR doesn't have a lot of listeners, and it's generally not asking Taylor Swift types anyway). And online music outfits such as Launch Yahoo and AOL Music and MySpace will often get a performer to do a special live performance or rerecording that they'll then run high-quality clips of at their site (there are seven Ashlee recordings for AOL from around the time of I Am Me). And someone can do properly recorded and produced TV sessions if they want (and many of the Idol performances get released as mp3s), I'd think. There's a long-running PBS show called Austin City Limits with country and alt-country performers. But whether any of these performances become generally available for sale would have to do with whether the acts themselves want to release the results. Taylor Swift did release a digital-only live set, I think it's five songs, and includes her version of "Umbrella," though I actually prefer this half-hearable and not altogether on-pitch live version. The thing is, although Taylor can sing in tune, she can't always count on herself to do so (the ACM performance was particularly wavering). So I'd think she'd be wary of committing in advance to recording something live that would be for official release. (But when you say "properly recorded and produced," I'm assuming these sessions aren't strictly live and that they allow for overdubs or at least retakes, like the BBC sessions of old for the Kinks, Beatles, etc.)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, I meant the old-style, BBC Maida Vale, come-in-for-a-day-and-record-4-songs-for-broadcast-later type of session.

Even the Beeb does much this less often nowadays, preferring most acts to do live (or as-live) in-studio performances.