Before she played the biggest venues in the world and became a global icon, Taylor Swift was a 17-year-old singer-songwriter with a handful of early country hits, playing small concerts and county fairs across the country.
One of those early concerts — a free show at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — took place on June 19, 2007, as a part of WGAR’s "Afternoon Saloon" series.
“We got to see a lot of artists and people pass through our conference rooms and do these Afternoon Saloons for us, and sometimes you never hear from this person again, or nothing ever happens,” says Dan Kensinger, a senior account executive at iHeartMedia. “And then people like Taylor Swift or Rascal Flatts or Little Big Town end up playing like amphitheaters and arenas, and you're like, ‘I remember when they were at the station.’”
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At the time, Afternoon Saloon concerts usually took place at a former Parma bar called The Blue Moose — but because of Swift’s age, the concert was moved to the Rock Hall’s amphitheater.
Radio programmers gave away tickets to the show on-air, and about 150 people showed up, says Tony McGinty, an iHeartMedia program director.
“I think it was maybe halfway full,” McGinty says. “Looking back on it now, you had an opportunity to see Taylor Swift at a free show at the Rock Hall, and there were some people who passed it up.”
(Taylor Swift and Tony McGinty)
The show followed Swift’s self-titled first album, and her first couple of songs to land radio play, “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops on My Guitar” — and preceded her transition into the pop music that she’s known for today. She played eight songs, and then she and her mother ate lunch with iHeartMedia employees afterward.
During the concert, Kensinger was struck by Swift’s songwriting skills — and, now, he’s struck by the timing of it.
“She was ready to sing ‘Teardrops on My Guitar,’ which was her song on the radio, and there’s a note in there about a guy named Drew. She was like, ‘What’s crazy is, I was in high school a year ago and sitting next to Drew’ — and now, she’s sitting in front of us, singing this song that she wrote about him, that was on the radio,” Kensinger says. “We were really there at the ground level.”
(Taylor Swift and Dan Kensinger)
The show also took place before “Our Song” was released as a single, which kickstarted Swift’s eventual stardom.
The following year, Kensinger saw Swift open for Rascal Flatts at Blossom Music Center, where she signed albums and took photos with fans after hitting the stage.
“Taylor was doing the work back in the day. She was doing radio station meet and greets, and she was playing free shows, and then all of a sudden, she's opening up for Rascal Flatts, and then she's the second act on a show, and then she's headlining shows; she came through a couple of times at the Q,” Kensinger says. “And now she's doing these massive football stadiums.
"She just legitly seems like an amazing, awesome, good person. And you can fake that for a minute, but you can't fake that over decades," he continues. "She has a great reputation; you just don't hear stories about her in trouble and doing stuff, and ego. She takes care of her crew too, when they're out on the road.”
But back in 2007, WGAR employees had no idea what was going to happen when they booked a teenage Taylor Swift for their Afternoon Saloon series — which also featured other stars who made it big, like Eric Church and Dierks Bentley, McGinty says.
“It’s very hit or miss,” he says. “It kind of snowballed from that, into the megastar that she is now. But at the time, we did not know that Taylor Swift was going to be this massive star.”
Here's the set list from the show, by the way.
Taylor Swift, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, June 19, 2007
- "Our Song"
- "Permanent Marker"
- "Teardrops on My Guitar"
- "Fearless"
- "Should’ve Said No"
- "Stay Beautiful"
- "Tim McGraw"
- "Picture to Burn"
See more photos from the throwback show below:
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