Taylor Swift wins Entertainer of the Year at “The 43rd Annual CMA Awards,” on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: John Russell / CMA

Six decades from now, Taylor Swift can see herself as an annoying grandmother, boring the youngsters with a well-worn story about the good old days. Following a phenomenal 2009, she walked off with the final trophy handed out at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, Album of the Year, and she anticipates it might well be the highlight that stands out when she’s retired and looking back on her innocent years.

“This is the story all of us, when we’re 80 years old and we’re telling the same stories over and over again to our grandkids and they’re so annoyed with us, this is the story we’re gonna be telling over and over again,” she beamed at the podium in Los Angeles’ Staples Center. “In 2010, we got to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

That’s four thank yous, one for each of the trophies she claimed during the three-and-a-half hour broadcast and a three-hour pre-telecast that streamed online at grammy.com. Fearless doubled as the Best Country Album, and Taylor rode “White Horse” to wins for Best Country Female Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, an honor she shared with co-writer Liz Rose.

“This is my first Grammy, you guys!” Taylor beamed when she took the Country Female hardware. “I mean, this is a Grammy! Oh, I live in awe of the people that I was nominated against in this category, I live in awe of my producer Nathan Chapman and all the wonderful, incredibly talented musicians in Nashville, and thank you to anyone who was a Grammy voter and decided that it might be a good idea to vote for me for this, because I’m so happy. Thank you so much!”

Taylor placed second in the overall trophy count. R&B singer Beyonce’s name was called six different times.

Taylor, who just turned 20 in December, was joined throughout the evening by some of her elders. She was escorted to the stage for the final trophy by 32-year-old producer Nathan Chapman. She harmonized with the iconic Stevie Nicks on the Fleetwood Mac classic “Rhiannon” and her own “You Belong With Me.” And she stood side by side with Liz Rose for the Best Country Song trophy, which improbably linked women whose world views are separated by three decades of experience.

“She started writing songs with me when she had absolutely no reason to do so,” Taylor said during the pre-telecast, recognizing the improbability of their joint success. “I didn’t have a record label, I didn’t have anything to offer her, but I’m so glad that she wrote songs with me anyway.”

Liz is likely as stunned by the way their collaboration has turned. In addition to “You Belong With Me,” Liz has also co-written “Teardrops On My Guitar,” “Tim McGraw,” “Picture To Burn,” “White Horse” and Taylor’s current single, “Fearless.” Liz could not have predicted what a financial windfall could come from writing with someone who could have literally been her own daughter’s classmate.

“About six years ago, this curly-headed 14 year old walked up to me and said, ‘You think you would write with me sometime?’” Liz recounted. “Thankfully, I said yes.”

As unlikely as that teaming might be, the Album of the Year honor has become something of a harbor for improbable country victories. As recently as 2002, the T Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? became the first-ever country project named Album of the Year. It took 44 years of Grammy awards for the genre to gain that kind of recognition.

But country-related projects have now won Album three of the last four years, and each of them has had an air of uniqueness. The Dixie Chicks’ Taking The Long Way, one of five winners for the band in 2007, represented the Recording Academy’s support for the Chicks’ willingness to use their politically based misfortunes into their art. In 2008, Alison Krauss’ Americana pairing with rock legend Robert Plant on Raising Sand, which seemed an odd musical union at first glance, likewise pocketed Album among five trophies.

Taylor’s Album of the Year victory comes with its own unusual distinction. It becomes the first winner in the category made by an artist while in her teens.

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