Taylor Swift, as she confesses in her latest track “The Lakes,” has had many elegies, all of whom she's managed to masterfully eulogize in song.
She's played the role of the maneater and the man. She's been the eternally heartbroken, the good country girl, the leather-clad vengeful pop princess, and a shaker (and no, we're not talking about a believer in the second coming of Christ). Now she's fighting the good fight (fuck you, Scooter Braun!) and palling around with indie-rock royalty, serving up one of the best albums of the year — all while spreading love, feels, and good vibes with her latest promotional move as a way to help small businesses economically wounded by the pandemic.
In support of her record, folklore, which she surprise-released in July giving Swifties a mere 24-hours notice, Swift sent off signed CD copies to independent record stores across the country. News began spreading on social media that various local record stores had gotten their hands on this precious Taylor treasure, including one legacy shop in metro Detroit.
The folks at Dearborn Music got a heads up a couple of days ago that Swift's team would be sending a stack of signed cd copies of her lauded — and record-breaking — eighth studio record, and her first indie-rock sounding entry, co-produced by Swift, frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, and the National's Aaron Dessner.
We just got in a limited supply of autographed Taylor Swift folklore CDs. So come in and pick up your copy today because...
Posted by Dearborn Music on Thursday, August 20, 2020
The copies, which were made available for first-come, first-served in-store purchase on Thursday, sold out in less than 30 minutes. Staff would not disclose how many copies they were sent but say it was “quite a few.”
“It's cool on her part,” a manager told Metro Times. “We're totally happy to have been a part of this promotion.”
The super sweet gesture is par for the course for the ever-generous Swift, who, in April, made an undisclosed donation to support every full-time staffer at Nashville's premier independent record store, Grimey's, which was forced to close during the pandemic.
It's also on-brand with the record itself, as it is steeped in its own, well, folklore. Upon the release, fan theories began emerging as Swifties swiftly decoded the record's lyrics, song placement, and references, including one such theory that believes Swift is secretly married to boyfriend Joe Alwyn because the first word on the record is “I” and the final word sang by Swift is “do.” People also seem to think that one of the contributing songwriters, William Bowery, is actually a pseudonym for Joni Mitchell, of whom Swift is a fan. The reason? Well, Mitchell often paints under the name Bowery Bum and her father's name is William Anderson.
Regardless of the who, what, where, and why of it all, Swift continues to make people's “Wildest Dreams” come true, and that's why we are #TeamTaylor, baby.
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