When Swift was eleven, she sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game. At twelve, she gained interest in the guitar and began to write songs. During this time she also took trips with her family to Nashville, Tennessee, to perform her music. In Nashville she wrote songs with local songwriters. Swift moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee with her family in 2003. When she performed at a local restaurant called the Bluebird Cafe, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta. Borchetta wanted to put her on his new label called Big Machine Records, which is partially owned by country music star Toby Keith.

Swift's first single, "Tim McGraw", was released to radio in Summer of 2006.The video debuted in July 2006 on Great American Country. On October 24, 2006, her self-titled CD was released. The CD, on which Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, peaked at #19 on the sales charts and sold more than 40,000 during its first week. The song "Tim McGraw" peaked at #6 on January 27, 2007. The video set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC's fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show, and the video reached #1 on CMT's video charts. Her follow up, "Teardrops On My Guitar", debuted at #46 on the February 24, 2007 country charts.

Since her success, she has appeared on Good Morning America, and at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel Great American Country.

Swift sang the national anthem at the November 12, 2006 Nascar race and at the November 23, 2006 Thanksgiving Day football game between the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions. She also performed at halftime at a recent Pittsburgh Steelers game. She also appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Tuesday February 13, 2007, where she performed her single, "Tim McGraw."

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