Liz Rose: Songwriting, Full Circle

By Craig Shelburne

Jul 7 2011

Liz Rose offers a simple philosophy for her newly founded publishing company in Nashville: “To encourage a songwriter, but not change a songwriter.”

That wisdom has served her well even before launching Liz Rose Music late last year. In fact, she often jokes that she “gets out of the way” when it comes to collaborating with Taylor Swift, a fruitful partnership that began when Swift was just 14 years old. Together they have composed “Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “White Horse,” “You Belong With Me” and more.

“We wrote the other day and I sat there going, ‘Man!’ I was just as amazed as the first time we wrote,” Rose says. “The best thing anybody did for her was learning how to appreciate how brilliant she is.”

In the early 1990s, Rose settled in Nashville as a stay-at-home mom but later divorced and entered the workforce as a song-plugger. She opened a small publishing company, but sold it after five years. Along with trying a management career and working for Brooks & Dunn, she helped songwriters however she could.

However, she hadn’t dreamed of being one herself.

“I’m not an artist and I don’t play so I never tried to write Liz Rose songs. I was just trying to get with these amazing people and pull out of them what they did best,” she says.

Prior to her latest venture, Rose had landed cuts by Gary Allan (“Songs About Rain”) and Trisha Yearwood (“Harmless Heart”), yet her success with Swift has afforded her the opportunity to open her own publishing company and sign the writers she believes in. So far, her enterprise has landed cuts with Alison Krauss & Union Station and Eli Young Band. She’s also immensely proud of her daughter, singer/songwriter Caitlin Rose.

Considering her current point of view, Rose says, “It’s going full circle back to that love of songwriters and wanting to see some great things happen for them.”