After seeing the huge response that Taylor Swift received as the opening act at U.S. Bank Arena, you may be wondering whether it should have been her instead of Keith Urban as the headliner for the show. Swift, a nineteen year old country singer who has engineered the fast rise of her career through her autobiographical teen romance songs, had the fans screaming throughout her entire high energy, hour-long performance.

Urban followed Swift with his own two hour set. There was certainly a contrast in their styles. Whereas Swift appeared hungry for the adoration of the fans and made a big show of giving love back to her adoring audience, Urban played it very cool throughout his set. The sellout crowd ate him up just as enthusiastically as they did Swift. It seems the screamers wanted to be Taylor Swift and be with Keith Urban.

The forty one year old guitar player and singer from Australia, who is also known as the husband of Nicole Kidman in popular culture, put on the quintessential pop performance in an almost effortless fashion. Standing on stage to allow the ladies in the audience to admire him was half the battle, and his lead guitar playing, although very rarely thrilling, was always technically sound and seemed to come quite as naturally and easy to him as standing there looking pretty.

It was definitely a pop performance even though Urban does perform on the country circuit. The set of 19 songs was filled mostly with acoustic guitar rhythmic ballads that were more reminiscent of Bryan Adams than honky tonk.

Urban ventured into several parts of the arena, with seventy five percent of it being set up for his show. Most of Urban’s performances were on the main stage where he either ran around during up-tempo songs such as “Wanna Love Somebody Like You,” with back up from the five piece band, or him playing acoustic guitar while sitting atop a stool on ballad-like tunes like “You’ll Think of Me.”

At the other end of the arena’s floor there was a smaller stage set up. Urban went out to that stage for some of his ballad action such as “Once in a Lifetime.” Later on during the show, Urban sauntered over to the bowl section of the arena where a microphone was set up and sang “You Look Good in My Shirt,” being fondled by all the female fans as he passed through.

Making his way back to the main stage, the singer was surrounded by lighting and video, with the video screen that was behind the backup band, changing its location after each song. During the song “‘Til Summer Comes Around,” the screen changed from a vertical position to horizontal, radiating greens, red and blues in a ceiling directly over the band to enhance the song’s mood with impressive effects.

Swift’s set was very similar to other opening-act appearances she did in Riverbend seasons. Her set was somewhat longer for this show, adding a theatrical set where she hammered with mallets on 55 gallon rusty drums. Swift’s strength is definitely not in imitating the Blue Man Group. Swift’s finest moments came when she set up songs with a story, which usually involved a boy who had wronged her, and then really letting the song rip. It will be very interesting to see Swift finally get the opportunity to be the headliner for her very own show someday in Cincinnati. If her recent awards, record sales and hit songs are any indication, that opportunity should be coming very soon.

Listening to Taylor Swift, it appears she had some very bad luck when it comes to boys. They do not see her shy looks from far away. They don’t apologize to her when they take her for granted. At times when they are too perfect, she is bored.

This all happened before she was 19 years old.

It turns out that youth is the greatest asset for this rising country star. However, it’s her ability to honestly dissect it that helps to separate Swift from the horde of other teenage starlets who tend to rely on Disney shows, song writers and big name producers for their musical careers.

Swift is a rare young genius who actually plays her role as well as her guitar. At the age of eighteen she is hopeful, naive and wide-eyed, which is actually the way she sounds on her new album “Fearless,” released by Big Machine Records, an indie label. The album is her sophomore effort following up on her 2006 debut Taylor Swift, a sleeper hit album that sold over 3 million copies as well as earning her a nomination for the Grammy award of Best New Artist.

However this time Swift’s aspirations are even greater. Her songs blur the lines of Top 40 radio with commercial country. Actually, a lot of the album “Fearless” sounds like a page torn right out of “The High School Years” by the Dixie Chicks. For each fiddle or mandolin, there is also an electric guitar wailing or strings awash to swell up the chorus. There is just a slight drawl creeping into the vocals of Swift, the definition for some of country music.

For the most part, however, the charm of Swift is in her songwriting. Swift knows how to definitely write a hit song. In the first single, “Love Story,” Swift casts herself in the role of Juliet pining away for Romeo, her starstruck lover. The video for the song features Swift all dressed up in Victorian wear along with the model boyfriend of Miley Cyrus, Justin Gaston, on loan playing Romeo.

Swift receives some songwriting help from Colbie Caillat and Liz Rose, however the most interesting songs on the album are the ones that Swift wrote by herself. You can almost see lyrics for the song “Fifteen” scrawled in her diary, detailing Swift’s high school freshman year.

“The Best Day,” is the album’s best song. It’s a musical valentine detailing how great Dad and Mom are. It is understated to the point that you almost don’t notice it, until you realize that the song doesn’t sound like anything else that appears on “Fearless.” Following an entire album full of wide open choruses, the simple story told by Swift is very refreshing. If the melody does not stick with you, at least the message does speak to the heart.