Taylor Edwards has been singing since she was a toddler. Her parents remembered that at age three she would jump on a table in a restaurant and start singing.
Her parents thought, “Oh goodness, this one, she likes the attention.”
Edwards doesn’t remember an “aha” moment because music has always been important in her life. In grade school, she did talent shows and musicals, anywhere she could perform.
During her tween years, she rode horses competitively which took up every minute of her spare time. By age 15, she had to decide, “Do I want to do this forever, or do I want just to be a regular teenager?” She quit competitive horseback riding and picked up a guitar and taught herself a few chords via YouTube.
“The rest is history. It was at age 15 when I really got the bug. I’ve always been creative, and songwriting was just another outlet for me to do that,” she explains.
Learning guitar and songwriting went hand in hand for the young artist and it was something she was able to do naturally.
By the time she turned six, the family relocated from California to Arkansas. Until that point, she had never been exposed to country music. But anytime she would visit friends, their parents would listen to country music.
“[Country music] wasn’t something that was playing in my house, but I have integrated it in,” she recalls. “It was a fun discovery,” she adds.
When it was time to go to college, she applied to two schools that had songwriting programs: UCLA and Belmont.
And while the songwriter is originally from California and had lots of family there, Belmont was in the center of Nashville, the country music hub of the world.
“Once I got that Belmont acceptance letter, I knew that was where I was supposed to be,” she recounts.
“I loved my time at Belmont. It helped me make so many connections. It made me grow as an artist. If I had moved to Nashville without going to Belmont, I would have had a different career and wouldn’t have understood the reality of the music industry.”
When she lived in Bentonville, Arkansas, she was the big fish in the small pond. But once she moved to Nashville, everyone could play, sing, and write.
“Everyone is the superstar of their hometown, so I learned that if you want to do this, you really have to put in the hard work and hustle because everyone (in Nashville) wants the same thing. Belmont totally helped me become an artist.”
Edwards graduated from Belmont in 2016 so 2022 marks her tenth year in Nashville. In 2018, she put out a three-song EP called No Hard Feelings. The single “Hard Feelings” is a personal song where the singer laments that “it’s so hard feeling what you did to me.”
That little taste of music production gave the artist the desire to pursue music full-on. She released several more singles after that.
Amid a global pandemic, Edwards wondered if listeners would really know her if the only information they had were her songs. Being a social media-savvy artist, she set out to create a project that would live longer than an Instagram story. It was then that the idea was conceived for the EP and now album Born in July where people could learn about the real Taylor Edwards.
That downtime prompted Edwards to write the introspective song “Mean to Me” which was released in June of 2021 and included on the Born in July EP/Record.
An interesting thing that happened to Edwards was when she was a senior in high school, her mother had another baby. She had/has a sister who was 17 years younger than her. This event would later have a profound impact on her life.
While away from home so much, she found herself missing her family and her little sister. That spurred her to write the song, “Call Your Sister.”
In September of 2021, she posted a TikTok video of “Call Your Sister” with clips of her younger sister on the Sunday night after her Born in July EP came out. It was a home video of her little sister with that song playing. The next morning, she woke up and the video had blown up. The video made its way to Ryan Seacrest where he asked Edwards to be on his show.
She recalls, “It was amazing. When I posted that video, I didn’t mean for it to be a trend, necessarily.”
People have taken this song and made it their own, posting more than 100,000 personal videos to it. It was also featured on CMT.com.
She told Seacrest, “I love my little sister. I’m obsessed with her. To be in the music industry takes a lot of your time. To not get to see these huge crucial moments of her growing up, is tough. It’s a full circle moment that this is my first song that is really hitting people.”
Seacrest also noted that TikTok is a great tool for artists to release music before it is officially released via a label or streaming platform.
She recalls, “I edited that video on a slow waitressing shift on a Sunday night which is the most Nashville thing ever, I posted it never expecting much since the timing/algorithm was off. The next morning it had 400.000 views. It’s been really cool.”
The reason the song has done so well is that it was written from the heart and resonates with so many.
“It’s a reminder that people are around you and they want to hear from you and be a part of your life, and to always make sure to connect with them,” she recaps.
Since then, the independent artist has partnered with EMPIRE, CAA, and Dreamcatcher. “Nothing feels better than finding a team that understands my vision as an artist,” she advised.
Other songs off the EP that have done well include “Not Supposed to Know Each Other,” “Catch Myself, and “Girl Wonder.”
“Not Supposed to Know Each Other” came out in June 2021 and it was her “future love song.”
She explains, “That song is about not being heartbroken or in love. It’s a great position because you can kind of focus on yourself. It’s OK to be single and in your twenties. That is when you get to figure stuff out.”
“Catch Myself” is about not allowing yourself to fall for the wrong guy while “Girl Wonder” is a daydream song about a girl wondering “what are you doing for the rest of your life.”
On September 8th, Edwards had an album release party for Born in July at the newly renovated, Nightscape venue. The vibrant decorations were as creative and beautiful as the artist herself and she wowed industry executives and her fans with a full band show and an appearance from her little sister, Berkleigh, who helped the songstress sing their song, “Call Your Sister.”
In the ten years since Edwards moved to Nashville, her clever songwriting and relatable lyrics endear her to music insiders and fans alike. As long as the artist remains true to herself, her popularity as a modern country artist will continue in its upward trajection.
You can follow Taylor Edwards on her website, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
– – –
Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and Twitter.