Shania Twain

[Jim Colyer]

http://jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=46

I thought ABBA was the last music to influence me. It was Elvis Presley, The Beatles and ABBA summing up everything. From nowhere, Shania Twain appeared on the Nashville scene. She was country with a difference. Her music had its roots in rock n' roll.

Shania's real name is Eilleen Edwards. She was born on August 28, 1965, and grew up in Timmins, Ontario, Canada, 500 miles north of Toronto. Shania's parents divorced when she was two, and she never knew her father. Her mother married an Indian named Jerry Twain. The family struggled for necessities, and Shania remembers growing up hungry. She hunted rabbits and cut trees in the wilderness. From the age of 8, she played guitar and wrote songs. Her mother encouraged her! She woke Shania from her sleep to perform in bars around Timmins once alcohol stopped being served. Shania felt comfortable in front of audiences. Mary Bailey, a Canadian singer, took her under her wing and became her manager. For a while, Shania honed her skills at an Ontario resort called Deerhurst. It was there that she was dubbed "Shania," meaning "on my way." A tragedy occurred when Shania was 21. Her mother and stepfather were hit head on and killed by a logging truck. It was hard work and sacrifice as Shania's "family" became her responsibility.

Mary and a Nashville attorney engineered a deal with Mercury Records, but Shania's first CD was run-of-the-mill, produced by Music Row veteran Norro Wilson. Norro was old school, and it showed. The Nashville method was for a producer and his artist to collect songs from publishers and to record them in one of a handful of studios using the same musicians who played for everybody. It was a stale system and the reason country music all sounded alike. There was nothing about Shania's first album to recommend it, and Mercury was going to drop her.

Enter Robert John "Mutt" Lange!, a producer from South Africa with money and connections. By chance, Mutt saw one of Shania's videos on television. He saw and heard something no one else did. It was Shania's body, her movements, her grace! He heard the sensuality in her voice. He attempted to reach her by phone and finally connected. Conversations began. Mutt wanted to produce Shania and wanted her to do her own songs. That did it! A romance bloomed, and the couple married in December, 1993.

Work began on The Woman In Me. Mutt spent a million dollars, and they recorded in Nashville. There had never been a country album like it. It was country with a pop and rock spirit. Shania and Mutt co-wrote. Their songs were instant classics. "Any Man Of Mine" became Shania's signature. "(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here!" rocked! Country radio played "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" reluctantly. This was risque stuff for Nashville. So was Shania's belly button! She was sexy and not afraid to flaunt it. She was the female Elvis!

Shania held off touring, declining to open for established country acts, which was the accepted way. Mutt Lange knew what he had. He wanted to build a catalog of songs that would fill a two-hour concert. Shania had superstar potential.

Mutt was 16 years older than Shania and remembered the golden era of Elvis, The Beatles and ABBA. He and Shania penned 16 gems for Come On Over, their second album. It was released in November, 1997, and went on to become the biggest selling record ever by a female artist, selling 40 million. It dominated the airwaves 1998-2000. Single after single went number one: "Love Gets Me Every Time," "Don't Be Stupid," "Honey I'm Home", "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" Girls around the country sang Shania nightly in karaoke bars. 1998 was to her what 1956 was to Elvis.

When Shania did tour, she was ready. The concerts consisted of wall-to-wall hits. Her band showed cultural diversity, musicians deferring to her stardom. They played the Nashville Arena in September, 1998, and I was there with my son Michael. It was an orgy of music and energy. In her prime, Shania was carried aloft through the crowd as if she were Cleopatra. Fans reached, hoping to touch! It was Bill Clinton's presidency at its hedonistic zenith!

Nashville was jealous of Shania's success. Ultimately, common sense prevailed, and the Country Music Association voted her Entertainer of the Year for 1999. It is their most prestigious award. It was all there: books, magazines, endorsements. The girl who ate rabbits was wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, but her anonymity and privacy were gone. She and Mutt sold their property in upstate New York and moved to Switzerland. When the economy sagged in 2000, Shania disappeared. New songs had to be written.

Motherhood came next! Mutt and Shania took time out from their fairytale careers to become parents. Their son was born, August 12, 2001. Mutt had been married but had no kids. He vowed never to marry again. Shania gave him a reason to.

The Chicago concert in July, 2003, kicked off a second world tour. Up Close & Personal, taped in Nashville, simulated Elvis' 1968 Comeback Special. Shania was making an effort to be part of country music even though the establishment resisted. Radio did not want to play Up!, and there were no number ones. "Forever And For Always" peaked at number 4. The video put Shania on a beach. She was still beautiful! The Up! CD did something that Come On Over did not. It reached #1 on Billboard's pop album chart.

Up! was a progression. The couple had evolved musically. There were good songs on Up! even if Nashville considered it artsy. "C'est La Vie" proved conclusively that Shania and Mutt evolved from ABBA. Notes in the chorus are identical to notes in "Dancing Queen." The CD had a disco feel with classical riffs. Politics had changed drastically from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush as 9/11 put America on a conservative course. Still, Shania partied into the 21st century, becoming the only woman with three consecutive albums topping the 10 million mark. On the strength of three records, she stood with Elvis, The Beatles and ABBA.

Shania's catalog is thematic. Her lyrics are female. She is the consummate libber, dealing with feminine concerns: looks, clothes, men, fun, money, work, hair, food and weight. Shania is Everywoman! In one respect, she differed. She broke loose from men in her age group and married a father figure, a man who could elevate her career to the level she deserved.

It came out in 2008 that Shania caught Mutt in an affair with the housekeeper. They divorced! Once again, Shania followed in the footsteps of Elvis, The Beatles and ABBA.

Shania did a two-year residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas beginning in December, 2012. After Vegas, she went back on the road for what she called her final tour.

Revised 2016
Jim Colyer