“That one's interesting. It's actually, what you hear when that song starts, you hear the air conditioning in the backstage of an arena in Germany where The National was playing, where I wrote it, because it was really.cold. It was like a hockey arena in Germany or something, and it was an awful, awful situation, but then that's me patting my leg, like playing drums on my leg, which I often do, which I kind of learned over time that if you record yourself like, playing surfaces or your body, and record it with an iPhone, it just sounds cool. I wrote the music first and Taylor wrote to it. I think she said that when she heard that sound of the, what is me like, playing my thigh essentially, that it reminded her of someone walking on cobblestones in high heels, like, unevenly, and that gave her an image in her mind which sort of like, led her into the narrative that she wrote.”
— Aaron Dessner on Switched On Pop about the Cardigan introduction (x)
“I’m going to debunk that [idea that those vocals are designed to sound like The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness]. It's a good story how this happened. Taylor was, she actually. arranged those vocals to go at the end of the song, so she was doing those choral, like these angelic, choral parts over the end of the last chorus of the song that you hear-when you listen to the song, you'll hear her doing that. But then she actually said, 'What if that went at the beginning of the song?' Taylor is interesting when she records, because she has kind of mapped it out in her head. Part of it like, comes naturally to her. It's also because she's been thinking about it. But she'11 come in and kind of have a whole architecture in her head that she's going to chase down, and that was one of those things. But then we were like, 'Oh, wow, That's so beautiful. What if it comes at the beginning?' And then she kind of sang more to it.”
— Aaron Dessner on Switched On Pop about the vocalizations in So Long, London (x)
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced the 2026 nominees in two contemporary categories, including Taylor Swift and Miranda La
One month after being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Taylor Swift is nominated for induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift is vying for induction in the contemporary songwriter/artists category with Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton and Phil Vassar. One inductee will be chosen in this category.
The Nashville SHOF also announced eight nominees in the contemporary songwriters category. Two inductees will be chosen in that category. The honorees will be elected by Hall of Fame members and other professional songwriters and artists.
The entire slate of inductees elected in these and three other categories will be announced in the coming weeks and officially inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame later this year.
“Well-deserved congratulations to all the nominees in our contemporary categories,” NaSHOF executive director Mark Ford said in a statement. “We look forward to announcing those who will be inducted this fall as members of our Class of 2026.”
Since 1970, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame has enshrined 254 “of the greatest writers from all genres of music ever to put words to music in Music City,” as the organization puts it. Operated by the non-profit Nashville Songwriters Foundation, the Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring Nashville’s rich legacy of songwriting excellence.
As with the Songwriters Hall of Fame, all nominees experienced their first significant songs at least 20 years ago.
Here’s a capsule description for each of the nominees in the two contemporary categories. The information is supplied by Nashville SHOF, supplemented by research into their Grammy histories, if any.
Miranda Lambert: The Texas native is a three-time Grammy winner, though she has yet to win in a songwriting category. (That latter fact will very likely change at the 2027 awards.) Her songwriting credits include her own “Automatic” and “Over You,” as well as “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley. Fun fact: “Choosin’ Texas” has logged 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, longer than any Swift hit to date.
Chris Stapleton: The Kentucky native is a 12-time Grammy winner, including three wins for best country song, for “Broken Halos,” “Cold” and “White Horse.” His other songwriting credits include his own “Starting Over,” as well as “Never Wanted Nothing More” by Kenny Chesney.
Taylor Swift: The Pennsylvania-born, Nashville-raised songwriter is a 14-time Grammy winner, including three wins in songwriting categories: best country song for “White Horse” and “Mean,” and best song written for visual media for “Safe & Sound” from The Hunger Games. Swift’s other credits include her own “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “Love Story,” as well as “Better Man” by Little Big Town. Swift made history at the SHOF ceremony, becoming the youngest woman ever to be inducted and the first past recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award to be inducted.
Phil Vassar: The Virginia native’s songwriting credits include his own “In a Real Love” and “Just Another Day in Paradise,” as well as “Bye, Bye” by Jo Dee Messina.
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