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“These are 15,000 people who could be doing anything with their Friday or Saturday night,” Swift says, “so the fact that we’re playing these sold-out stadiums and these arenas, it just blows my mind.”

Swift’s Speak Now Tour, which comes to Bridgestone Arena for two sold-out shows — surprise! — will do its best to return the mind-blowing favor, featuring (in addition to the string of monster hits) “a giant bridge that lowers itself” and what Swift describes as “a flying gag at the end of the show where the balcony becomes more than a balcony.” (What it becomes is something like a UFO.)

A few thousand Nashvillians got to see the act ahead of schedule back in May, when what was supposed to be the production’s last dress rehearsal became its de facto first show: Swift decided to use the final run-through as an open-to-the-public fundraiser for Alabama tornado relief. But there are still a few surprises lurking amid the theatrical choreography, spinning aerialists and multiple in-song costume changes. Swift has been using the acoustic portion of the show to mix things up and play covers — often from artists who hail from the city she’s playing. (Her cover of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at a recent Detroit stop had the Internet tripping all over itself, even though she’s rendered that song occasionally since 2007.)

“I love playing covers,” Swift says. “It’s a fun way to break up the show … and it’s a way to tell my fans which songs I’m liking at the moment.”

The only problem with this more spontaneous portion of the set when playing her hometown: deciding whose songs to sing. “It’s going to be a tough choice, picking a Nashville artist to cover, because they’re all my favorites,” she says. “It’s going to be a painstakingly difficult choice. You’ve got to pick from all your friends, you’ve got to pick from all your mentors, you have to pick from all your heroes — people who took you out on the road when you just had one single out.” And hinting that she might go in a Slim Shady-ish direction yet again for the 615, she adds: “Then there are all the amazing hip-hop and R&B artists in Nashville. …”

If Swift plans to bust out a version of Young Buck’s “When the Rain Stops” — it’s not hard to imagine her rapping the lines, “In ’08, I was ’09, ahead of my time” — she’s not letting on. But whatever Nashville-centric touches she decides on for the show will come from a place of deep affection.

“It’s my favorite town,” Swift says. “It’s home.” As for the season, she says, “Fall is my favorite for a lot of reasons. Things are really changing, and you can really see it.” Put another way: In a hypothetical Venn Diagram, a circle labeled “Nashville” and a circle labeled “Fall” would overlap to create a third shape labeled “Taylor Swift’s Favorite Things.” Swift also cites autumn as a season steeped in meaning and creative energy. “I’ve had a lot of loves in the fall,” she says, “and inspiration-filled songwriting moments.” Given the way she’s gone about making hit songs out of both having loved and having loved and lost, the two are as inextricable as the turning of the leaves and the end of summer. Sept. 16 and 17 at Bridgestone Arena

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Related posts:

1. Interview with The Tennessean
2. Taylor in Concert: Nashville, TN (Day 1 & 2)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 at 5:13 PM and is filed under Interviews, News/Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.