Taylor Swift played the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie a full month before her self-titled debut album even hit shelves — a 16-year-old opening act with one song, “Tim McGraw,” getting people to pay attention. She opened for country hitmaker Phil Vassar that night, still years from becoming the biggest star on the planet, just a kid trying to win over a room that came to see somebody else. Twenty years later, it’s almost impossible to imagine Taylor Swift as anybody’s opener — but for one night in the Hudson Valley, that’s exactly what she was.
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