Cover Story: Maggie Rogers Ditches the Old Taylor’s Twang in Her Cover of "Tim McGraw"

Maggie Rogers offers another look into young heartbreak through her impassioned vocals and wistful, glimmering indie sound in her rendition of Taylor Swift’s debut single, “Tim McGraw.”

Written by Janie Bickerton

The year is 2006, and a new star is on the rise in the Nashville country music scene. Sixteen-year-old Taylor Swift takes the Grand Ole Opry stage and dazzles country music aficionados with her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” a timeless tale about reliving a lost love. “Tim McGraw” launched Swift into stardom, giving her the opportunity to serenade the song’s namesake less than a year later in 2007. Between her shift from country to pop, then a dip into folk, then back to pop, Swift’s beginnings as a teenage country singer grounded her larger-than-life persona. But even after 17 years, fans still find themselves gravitating towards Swift’s juvenile vocals on her debut album, patiently awaiting its Taylor’s Version. For Swifties unsure of what to listen to in the meantime, turn to none other than indie-pop singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, who released a beautifully introspective rendition of “Tim McGraw” in 2018. Through sonic, vocal, and lyrical reworkings of the 2006 hit, Rogers’ cover of “Tim McGraw” transforms Swift’s naive narrative into a nuanced look at young love and the struggle of leaving it behind.

Rogers’ lyrical arrangement drives home the retrospective sultriness of her cover. She changes lyrics to fit the altered cadence (dropping the “faded” in “my old faded blue jeans”), but her emphasis on a select group of lyrics shifts the message of the song. Rogers repeatedly echoes the lines that make “Tim McGraw” a memorial to young love, which both distances the listener from the memory of the summer and accentuates the emotional weight of the relationship. An “I hope you think of me” begins the song instead of Swift’s instrumental intro, conveying the sadness of not wanting to leave behind an ended relationship more profoundly than opening with acoustic guitar, a country staple. Rogers sprinkles several more “I hope you think of me”’s after the second verse and in the final chorus to emphasize the broody, yet still naive, reflection on young love. By making “I hope you think of me” the foundation of the song, Rogers gives “Tim McGraw” more depth than its seemingly surface-level theme.

With only thoughtful, minor changes to Swift’s original lyrics, Rogers distinguishes her cover by changing the sound of “Tim McGraw” entirely. Trading acoustic guitar twang for pensive bass guitar strums, she ditches the cliched sad country tune and elevates the song’s wistfulness in the process. Wavering keys mimic rippling water before the first verse, as if Rogers were peering into a reflection of the past as she remembers when “He said the way my blue eyes shined / Put those Georgia stars to shame that night.” Both versions pick up sonically in the second verse by introducing a new instrument. In Swift’s version, a melancholic violin sets the mood from the second verse on, while Rogers’ rendition features a steady snare drum beat that grounds the remaining three minutes of her longer cover Sure, the violin makes for a stereotypically wistful tune, but the deeper drumbeat fleshes out the heartbreak of Rogers’ version by adding a level of regret and anger over an unrevivable past. The sounds of Swift’s original version mark her intention at the time: to share her heartbreak while also fitting into the country genre. Devoid of any preconceived sonic expectations, Rogers’ all-at-once somber, hopeful, and reflective sound enhances the conflicting desire to remember and forget.

But the most emotionally pungent change to “Tim McGraw” comes with the vocal alterations. Rogers’ vocal range fulfills a level of sadness and yearning that Swift couldn’t quite hit in the sometimes strained notes of the original. She shifts the tune and cadence throughout the song, allowing for the summer memories to shine in their forlorn glory, from “The moon like a spotlight on the lake” to “[her] head on [his] chest.” The young Swift misses the hard-hitting delivery that Rogers achieves because of a typical feature of her early songs — a male backup singer. By letting her own raw vocals shine, Rogers portrays the loneliness of remembering the good and the bad more poignantly than Swift, whose reliance on vocal accompaniment makes her loneliness less apparent. The most salient vocal change that makes Rogers’ version a more impassioned take on young heartbreak is her raised octave in the second chorus. Rogers evinces remorse and despair through her timbre and range, while Swift misses the mark even with an attempt at more vigor in the second chorus. Rogers also delivers the bridge — the climax where the subject returns to her past lover’s doorstep to leave a note — with a greater punch by raising the notes and letting them linger thoughtfully before returning to the chorus. Rogers’ range at 24-years-old makes her “Tim McGraw” remain an introspective look into young love, but delivered in a more emotionally developed and vocally mature way.

Maggie Rogers’ cover of “Tim McGraw'' stays true to Swift’s central story of a young girl hoping to be remembered through song, but she more efficiently spotlights these themes through lyrical emphasis, sonic reinvention, and her own vocal prowess. Rogers’ version is just as timeless as the original, but in a different way. Swift sings as if the summer of love was just last season, while Rogers sings with the kind of longing that only time brings, as if she’s reflecting on a young love farther removed. When Swift releases her re-recorded debut album, her lyrics will likely deliver a more mature message, just as Rogers’ did. With such an impactful rendition, perhaps when you think of “Tim McGraw,” you’ll think of Maggie Rogers.