Taylor Swift Named Country Songwriter of the Year

Taylor Swift became the youngest person ever to win BMI's Country Songwriter of the Year at the performing-rights society's annual awards in Nashville on Tuesday night.

She broke another BMI record by becoming the first songwriter to win Country Song of the Year three consecutive times, this year for "You Belong With Me" (co-written with Liz Rose).

Yet it was a bittersweet evening for the singer, who attended the funeral of her friend Jeff Lang the day before.

"It's been a really emotional week for me," she told the audience. "He was 21, and I used to play my songs for him first. So I would like to thank Jeff Lang," Swift said. Lang was found dead in his apartment last week.

Swift won the songwriter award based on her recordings of "Fifteen," "White Horse" and "You Belong With Me," along with "Best Days of Your Life," which was recorded by Kellie Pickler.

Photos: Taylor Swift's Family Album: Shots of Our Cover Girl's Picture-Perfect Life

Last week, Swift sold more than a million copies of her new album, Speak Now , in seven days, easily topping the Billboard albums chart.

Check out Austin Scaggs' hilarious interview with Taylor early this year.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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