My 2024 Ukulele Project: the Taylor Swift Surprise Songs Sets
Tangerine T-Rex plays Taylor Swift!
Remember when I was talking about making a list of 10 Things to Do in 2024? I usually don’t finish my list until the end of January, because things tend to pop up.
And I’m glad I left a few spots open, because I gave myself a new project to work on all year long.
For the uninitiated/non-Swifties among us (which is not me, obviously): Last year on the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift played two “surprise” acoustic songs at each show. The songs were not part of the regular set list and were meant to be an ever-changing, never-repeated moment.
(Taylor ended up repeating a few songs because she messed them up, which is a whole other Tayspiracy that she might be releasing them as an album at some future date? Who knows?)
Coincidentally, there were 53 sets/shows on the North American leg of the 2023 tour, so I’m going to learn and play each set in the order it was performed at the shows, starting this week and running right up to the end of the year.
Oh, did you not know I love to play ukulele? I do! It’s one of the great pleasures of my life, something I do for absolute fun.
I’ll be performing each set on IG Live via my @tangerinetrex Instagram account.1
Unlike Taylor, if I mess up during a song — and I already have! — I’m leaving it in, because that’s part of life and not being perfect at this but having a good time anyway.
I don’t expect anyone to tune in live, but I’m doing it for accountability2 and you are welcome to follow along, whether or not you’re a Taylor Swift fan.
If you are, there are so many gems in the Surprise Songs sets! I’m already so excited for a few, but I’m not going to skip ahead and play my favorites first.
And if you’re not, hey, you might find a new song or two to open your eyes to the prolific world of TS.
Oh, and of course, I made a magical Notion dashboard to track it all.
It’s really fun to do things for yourself, isn’t it?
WANT TO WATCH ALL THE SURPRISE SONGS SETS?
You can see every single performance here, updated as they are finished. The final “show” will be live on December 31, 2024.
Last January, we were at Bright Ideas Brewing having some many beers and watching a musician play an acoustic set. ‘Twas then I decided that Tangerine T-Rex would be my musical alter ego.
In case you’re wondering, I got this idea because I’d been playing one or two songs right before getting ready for bed over the past month, and realized it was a fantastic way to get my ukulele practice in without feeling like I had to make a big time commitment.