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Shania Twain Says Her New Album Is ‘Soul Music’ and Wants to Duet with Nick Jonas

It is a more soulful approach to my songwriting then I’ve probably ever allowed myself.

By Annie Reuter | March 5, 2015 9:15 AM

It looks like 2015 will be a very good year for Shania Twain fans.

For starters, Twain just announced her Rock This Country Tour, which will also serve as her farewell tour. In addition, as she tells Radio.com, she’s got a new album in the works.

The two, however, are separate projects. As Twain explains, she won’t be playing any of her new material on the road.

“I want everyone to hear the hits,” she tells Radio.com. “When I go to a show I want to hear songs that I know. So I won’t be introducing any of the new songs from the new music in this concert.”

Which isn’t to discount her excitement for the new music she’s working on. “The songs are going great,” she says enthusiastically. “I’ve been putting them together for a really long time now. They’ve been whirling around in my head, so I’ve got a pile of things, way too much for one album.”

While Twain says she’s in the studio and the “record is on its way,” she explains that it’s difficult to vividly describe and categorize the sound of the new material.

“It’s hard for me to put my finger on it; I don’t know how to explain it,” she confesses. “One of the producers involved, we were talking about how to describe it in words and he said, ‘This is soul. This is soul music.’”

Twain wouldn’t reveal the producer she’s working with, but she did agree with his ‘soulful’ explanation.

“It’s not like my music was ever traditional anyway. I don’t think anybody expects that from me. Nothing that I’m doing is traditional,” she says. “Certainly, as I reflect back on listening to this stuff, it reminds me a lot of the influences that I had growing up. There’s influences from my childhood in the music that I’m writing now.”

The country singer says she hears hints of artists like Emmylou Harris, Gladys Knight, Roy Orbison and Glen Campbell in the music she has been writing more recently.

“It is a more soulful approach to my songwriting then I’ve probably ever allowed myself to have before,” she admits. “It’s fun music, too. I like to stay positive. I’ll make sure that I do some things on there that make you feel good and happy as well. I’m having a lot of fun.”

Since current country radio has seen a shortage of female airplay lately, we wonder which contemporary country women Twain enjoys listening to. The first artist she names is Miranda Lambert.

“I love female voices. I just heard Miranda Lambert singing ‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under’ the other day [at Dierks Bentley’s Hot Country Knights showcase] and that was so cool,” she says. “That was a really cool compliment. She was having so much fun, and I thought, 'Wow'. I could hear a lot of these voices singing my music.’”

She continues: “I think once I get my own record done I’m going to start pulling out some of the songs that I may not get to and start getting together with other female artists just to hear my songs sung by them. I don’t always need to be the singer of everything that I write.”

Twain has fans in every genre of music. For instance, Nick Jonas recently admitted to us that she was his first celebrity crush, and that he saw her Las Vegas residency.

So, would she ever team up with a pop artist like Jonas for a duet?

“I’d love to do that. I’d have a great time doing that actually,” she says immediately. “I will consider that. I’ll have to call him.”

The idea of a Twain-Jonas collaboration isn’t really that big of a stretch, either. “My music has definitely had a cross-genre life,” she says. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of pop artists over the years, and we share a lot in common, regardless of what genre we’re in. I certainly would enjoy an experience like that.”

http://radio.com/2015/03/05/shania-twain-new-album-interview-soul-music-nick-jonas/