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Preview: Country superstar Shania Twain returns with a farewell tour

By Scott Mervis | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | July 9, 2015

Like Garth Brooks, that other crossover country star who popped up earlier this year, Shania Twain did a masterful of job quitting while she was ahead, leaving people wanting more -- or whatever cliche you want to use.

Although the Canadian singer has four albums to her credit, her mega-stardom lasted for all of two records, 1997's "Come On Over" and 2002's "Up!," and the two tours that supported them.

With fans still waiting for the follow-up, the 49-year-old Twain now hits the road on the Rock This Country Tour, her first in 11 years, to say goodbye.

Sort of. Maybe.

"It's certainly not my retirement from music," she said in a teleconference. "I will be doing music, I'm sure, until the day I die. I love music too much. But the performance side of it, I feel, is a phase in my life, and I've been doing it for so long. I'm 50 this year, I've been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I've really put in my fair share of performance.

"And I'm feeling that the time is just right now to do other things, musically. I want to write more, I want to make lots more records. I miss making records, and I haven't made enough records in my life and in my career. I've done a lot more live performing than I have recording, so I want to do a lot more of that."

A few things got in the way of her recording more albums. Like a lot of performers, especially in the country genre, the Switzerland-based singer wanted to be a parent, to her son Eja, who was born in 2001. More problematic was her bout with vocal dysphonia, tension in her vocal cords that did not allow her sing.

And then there was the painful personal drama between her and the man who crafted her stardom, Robert "Mutt" Lange. The veteran writer/producer who made his name working with AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner and The Cars married Ms. Twain in 1993 and was at the helm of her last three albums. In 2008, they separated after he had an affair with her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiebaud. They divorced in June 2010, and in a marital swap, she has since married Ms. Thiebaud's ex-husband.

She opened up about that, and her tragic childhood experiences growing up with poverty and abuse, in her 2011 autobiography "From This Moment On." It's the stuff of a juicy biopic and certainly experience that would fuel a songwriter.

"It's a very personalized songwriting and therapeutic process for me. I'm pouring my heart out in the music," Ms. Twain said.

"I think there are going to be a lot of unexpected elements to the music for sure because I am writing it all myself. Lyrically, I'm still doing the self-reflection and writing in that vein. I'm just different now and I've lived a lot of different things since then, so the stories and the themes will be obviously different and will reflect how I've evolved."

Ms. Twain, who has sold more than 75 million albums, created some of the glossiest sounding country-pop in the late '90s, early '00s with such hits as "Man, I Feel Like a Woman!," "You're Still the One" and "That Don't Impress Me Much."

With her next record, Shania is hoping for less sheen.

"I'm leaning towards wanting the music to sound more organic than my previous stuff. Less slick maybe in that sense -- a really live feel to things, and with a contemporary edge to everything."

Album No. 5 didn't come together in time to launch this tour, which follows her two-year residency in Las Vegas.

"The timing of the tour was decided on not leaving too much of a gap from when my residency finished in December," she said. "At the same time, I was hoping that my album would be further along by the time I finished my residency. It was just one of those things where the timing didn't work out very well."

But she's busy at work, recording demos while she's on tour.

"I'll have a very portable setup and I just sing and record my vocals. It's how I do my demos and you can be electronically connected with your producer wherever they are. And the producers will come out to me as well while I'm touring, and we'll just poke away at it like that. There's just various ways to do this now that is pretty efficient, very effective."

The timing problem, and the reason this might not really be her goodbye, is that she wants to be able to perform the songs from her comeback album.

"I'm dying to do it. If the album progresses quickly enough and the timing works out, then I might very well just put one or two songs in closer to the end of the tour. It would bum me out to not do some of those songs live."

For the moment, she just wants to connect with fans she left behind all these years.

"A lot has happened over the last decade since I've been off tour in all of our lives, my life and in their lives, and music is bringing us back together. And we're going to celebrate and reminisce to all of the hits that they know and that we've all lived with for all of these years now.

"And, in my case, a lot of the kids that were listening to the music years ago, that I would have seen on tour years ago, are going to be adults now, and it's just exciting for me to be able to be reunited with them. And I have to say that the most rewarding thing for me, and the thing I'm looking most forward to on this tour, is seeing the fans and being with them again and feeling their excitement and sharing mine with them."

Shania Twain

Where: Consol Energy Center, Downtown.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Tickets: $43-$129; www.ticketmaster.com.

http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2015/07/09/Preview-Country-superstar-Shania-Twain-returns-with-a-farewell-tour/stories/201507090022

Shania Twain talks about bidding fans farewell

By Donna Isbell Walker | Greenville News | July 13, 2015 3:11 p.m. EDT

Shania Twain has spent the past 2¹/₂ years performing a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and it's been more than a decade since she hit the road for a concert tour.

That all changed earlier this summer, when she embarked on "Rock This Country," which Twain said will be her final tour.

The tour has a dual purpose, to reacquaint herself with fans and to bid them farewell.

"It's like a reunion of sorts," Twain said in a conference call interview with journalists before the tour hit the road. "A lot has happened over the last decade, since I've been off tour, in all of our lives. In my life and in their lives. Music is bringing us back together, and we're going to celebrate and reminisce. ... It's just exciting for me to be reunited with them."

Twain, who performs at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena on July 18, has had a phenomenally successful career over the past 20 years, selling 48 million records, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and hitting the charts with songs like "That Don't Impress Me Much" and "You're Still the One."

It's been nearly 13 years since her last album, "Up!" and she's working on the next album, even hoping to squeeze in some time to record it while she's on the road.

But in keeping with the old friends vibe of the tour, Twain probably won't play much new music during the tour.

"This tour is really all about the classics, and the reason for the tour is just to say goodbye to the stage on a high, with my friends, with my fans," she said.

She's clear, though, that her retirement from touring doesn't mean she's leaving the music business altogether.

"I will be doing music, I'm sure, until the day I die. I love music too much," Twain said. "The performance side of it, I feel is a phase in my life, and I've been doing it for so long. I (will be) 50 this year, I've been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I've really put in my fair share of performance. And feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically. I want to write more, I want to make lots more records. ... So I just see it as an evolution in my career, really."

Twain said she enjoyed her residency in Las Vegas, but felt it was time for a change. But her experience of performing in one place for two years was part of the driving force in her desire to hit the road one last time.

"During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I'd missed being on the touring stage and missed going out to the public, as opposed to them coming to me. So I was thinking, 'Hey, it would be fun to go and visit people in their own hometowns and experience that excitement and atmosphere again.'"

And to a degree, her time at Caesars Palace also changed how Twain interacts with an audience. In Vegas, the crowd is much closer to the stage than the audience at an arena concert, she said.

"I love to see the people close-up, I like to touch the people and mingle with them. It was really cool to do so much of that there, having them so close to the stage in such a controlled room; it was a theater environment. And what I learned was, I want to do more of this," she said.

Twain opened her tour last month in Seattle; the final show takes place in October in her native Canada. The tour will showcase a whole new side of Twain as a performer, she said.

"The show is just full of great technology on the highest end possible. It's a very dynamic show, more dynamic than ever before. And no one's ever seen me in this light, ever before. It's going to be a whole new fresh look, a whole new fresh production, entirely different from Las Vegas. We've stripped everything down and started from scratch. ... I think it will be memorable."

YOU CAN GO

Who: Shania Twain with Gavin DeGraw

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena

How much: $64-$134

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/2015/07/13/shania-twain-talks-bidding-fans-farewell/30093115/

Shania Twain Hits Miami for One Last Tour

By Liz Tracy | Miami New Times | July 15, 2015

Shania Twain may not be impressed by much, but just about everyone is impressed by this pop-country siren. She's the Denzel of females — all talent with a perfect visage. And just like that runaway train Mr. Washington spent a whole movie trying to slow down, she's proven to be almost unstoppable.

The singer of feminist anthems like "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" and wedding staples "You're Still the One" and "From This Moment On" has had her share of country-and-western heartache. She lands like a cat, though, always on her feet.

When Twain was a kid and her family was in need of money, she began singing at bars for extra dough. When her husband left her for her best friend, she retreated to heal, only to find love with that same friend's ex. When a lesion damaged her vocal cords, she retired to Switzerland, returning to the stage in Vegas for 2012's Still the One at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. She has hit her stride again and again.

Twain is heading to 67 cities this summer and fall for her Rock This Country tour. It's been more than 11 years since she toured North America, and this is slated to be her final time on the road. The chanteuse says that after two years at one spot in Vegas, she realized she missed going out to where the people were rather than have them coming to her. "It's a very exciting time for me. For fans, we're going to be reintroduced to each other," Shania says. "Music is bringing us back together, and we're going to celebrate and reminisce with all of the hits."

Though Ms. Twain went Vegas, don't expect her set to look like the Bellagio. She claims it's a whole new look that no one has seen before. Oddly, though, she admits to bringing her horse on tour once to get some exercise and see some new landscapes. But this time, she's leaving the equine life at home. Instead of riding Mr. Ed, she'll record a new album during her breaks.

But, sadly, audiences on this tour will not hear songs off her upcoming release. "This tour is really all about the classics," she reveals, but also, "to say goodbye to the stage on a high." She says if the album moves ahead quickly, though, by the end of the tour some lucky buggers will catch her performing them in concert.

However, don't think Twain is leaving the game for good. "It's certainly not my retirement from music," she says. She'll be making music till she dies, but she's finished with the performance side of the biz. She'll turn 50 this August and has been onstage since she was 8. Forty-two years makes hers a pretty fantastic career. These days, she'd rather write for up-and-coming artists and spend time recording her own albums.

"I've evolved a lot over the years," she explains. "My life has changed so dramatically, and my point of view has changed in a lot of ways. The way I see my role onstage and what I mean to fans and what they mean to me, all of that is more valuable, and it's just another level of maturity and gratitude. I'm looking forward to just exchanging that and experiencing that with them."

Shania Twain with Gavin DeGraw. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, July 16, at American Airlines Arena, 601 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami; 786­777­1000; aaarena.com. Tickets cost $43 to $133 plus fees via Ticketmaster.com.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/shania-twain-hits-miami-for-one-last-tour-7750657

Shania Twain talks about her final tour, headed for Quad-Cities

By David Burke | Quad-City Times | July 17, 2015

IF YOU GO

WHO: Shania Twain, with Gavin DeGraw

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 26

WHERE: iWireless Center, 1201 River Drive, Davenport

HOW MUCH: $136, $86, $66 and $46

INFORMATION: 309-764-2001 or iWirelessCenter.com

ALSO ON THE WEB: ShaniaTwain.com

There have been seismic shifts in the music landscape during the past dozen-or-so years, but Shania Twain says she's more than ready to return to it.

Shania Twain’s ‘Rock This Country’ tour a farewell reunion with fans

By Eric Althoff | The Washington Times | July 19, 2015

Shania Twain firmly states that her current “Rock This Country” tour will be her last, but the country/pop icon quickly adds, “It’s certainly not my retirement from music. I will be doing music until the day I die. I love music too much.”

The news is mixed comfort for fans of Miss Twain. The Canadian songstress, who achieved superstardom in the late 1990s as a country artist who crossed into the mainstream, shied away from the limelight for nearly a dozen years amid a messy — and very public — divorce and health problems that affected her voice.

But after a triumphal two-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Miss Twain knew she wanted to go out and see her fans on one final excursion before hanging up the mic.

“I think the fans [and I] are going to be reintroduced to each other,” said Miss Twain, who will perform Tuesday at the District’s Verizon Center. “It’s like a reunion of sorts. Music is bringing us back together.”

In 2011, the singer of such hits as “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” “You’re Still the One” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much” was told she suffered from dysphonia, a condition that hindered her ability to accurately reproduce pitches — a veritable death knell for someone in Miss Twain’s profession.

“It was very, very scary. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to sing again,” she said of her diagnosis. “It was a part of me that I was losing, like losing a hand or something.”

Nevertheless, while undergoing extensive therapy to restore her vocal chords’ prowess, Miss Twain kept her pen busy, continuing to write material — for herself or, potentially, for other artists to record.

“I was writing the music, but I didn’t know what to do with it,” she said. “Why I didn’t record anything is primarily because my voice just wasn’t there.”

She likened her recuperation to an athlete convalescing from an injury, a process that required extensive physical and vocal work, which she said required not only patience but also “persistence [and] determination, because, like any physiotherapy, it’s hard, it’s tedious, it’s repetitive, it’s boring, it’s tiring, it’s painful.”

With intensive therapy and retraining, Miss Twain again found her voice, albeit with a sound altered from the one that made her famous.

“There was the process of learning to live with the voice that was now slightly different, because you’re never exactly the same again,” she said. “Now warming up for the show takes an hour and a half [for] physical and vocal therapy.”

In addition to dealing with her personal and vocal woes, Miss Twain took the time away from the spotlight to raise her son, Eja Lange, who is now 13. All told, she didn’t sing publicly for more than a decade — and the music industry had changed dramatically since her last album, “Up,” hit record stores in 2002.

While she isn’t promoting a new album on the “Rock This Country” tour, Miss Twain is hard at work on fresh material, some of which she may unveil onstage as the tour nears its close this year.

“It’s different from what I’ve done in the past, stylistically,” she said. “I’ve matured and evolved, and I have different things to say or express that weren’t true about me 10, 15, 20 years ago. That, I think, is just a natural evolution that I don’t think is going to surprise anybody.”

Miss Twain, who is remarried, is channeling the hardships of her life — as a poor, rootless young woman losing her parents in a car crash, as well as her divorce and loss of her voice — into her new works.

“It’s just a very therapeutic process,” she said.

Miss Twain, who will turn 50 next month, has performed publicly since the age of 8. She feels she has “put in my fair share” of performances and the time is right to leave the stage behind. Looking ahead, she said she would be content — perhaps even fulfilled — writing music for other artists.

“My frame of mind is I want to move on to do different things, and I need time to do it,” she said. “It takes a lot of focus to write meaningful songs. If I’m distracted with all the facets of a tour, how much am I really going to write and how many albums am I really going to make?

“I’ve got a lot more to say, I’ve got a lot more to sing, and that’s what’s behind that decision” to no longer tour, she said. “I can’t do both at the same time. I want to sit back and … watch my music as the observer from the audience.”

She is even considering writing songs in French, which is not only the second official language of her homeland but also of her Swiss husband, Frederic Thiebaud.

“I haven’t written any songs in French yet, but it’s a great idea,” Miss Twain told The Washington Times. With a laugh, she added: “My husband would have to help me with certain elements of it, but I could certainly attempt that, and I think it would be a lot of fun.”

Miss Twain’s ex-husband and former manager, Robert “Mutt” Lange, left her for her former best friend, Marie-Anne Thiebaud, who is the ex-wife of her current husband, Mr. Thiebaud — no doubt all of which will provide ample material for her forthcoming compositions.

In the meantime, Miss Twain is enjoying going out and seeing her fans one final time. Without the burden of a new album to promote, she feels she can sing the songs her fans want to hear for an evening that is a celebration and a farewell.

“The last two years in Las Vegas, the fans came to me. I just feel pumped to get out there and bring them this whole new show,” she said. “This tour is really about the classics. The reason is to say goodbye to the stage on a high and just be with my friends, with my fans.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/19/shania-twains-rock-country-tour-farewell-reunion-f/

Country/pop queen Shania Twain talks comeback tour, vocal problems, new music

After vocal and personal problems, country/pop queen Shania Twain is back on tour, headed to Target Center on Tuesday.

By Jon Bream | Star Tribune | July 22, 2015 — 11:19am

Shania Twain
Opening: Gavin DeGraw.
When: 7:30 p.m. July 28 & Sept. 26.
Where: Target Center, 600 1st Av. N., Minneapolis.
Tickets: $46-$136, axs.com.

Like Garth Brooks, Shania Twain was massive in the 1990s and then — surprise — took a break. A long break.

Like Garth, Twain staged a comeback in the ’10s by performing a residency in Las Vegas and then recently returning to the road, with concerts set for Target Center on Tuesday and another on Sept. 26.

His hiatus was to raise his three daughters. Hers is harder to explain.

Twain, the only female artist to record three albums that each topped 10 million in U.S. sales, ran into voice problems and marital problems. Her husband/producer/co-writer cheated on her (with Twain’s best friend, no less), and single parenthood ensued until she remarried (her ex-best friend’s ex-husband, no less). We’ll leave the discussion of the drama — it’s a bit old news — to TMZ.

As for her voice issues, Twain suffered from dysphonia, a disorder, sometimes induced by stress (see aforementioned drama), in which the vocal cords seize up when one is trying to speak or sing. She needed therapy to find her voice again, which was chronicled on her docu-series “Why Not? With Shania Twain” on Oprah’s OWN network a few years ago.

“It was a lot of work, a lot of physiotherapy and vocal therapy,” Twain said in a recent phone interview. “Persistence, determination, because like any physiotherapy, it’s hard, it’s tedious, it’s repetitive, it’s boring, it’s painful a lot of the time — very similar to how an athlete would have to go through it if they had an injury. I need an hour and a half of physical and vocal warm-up now before shows.”

After serving as a judge on “American Idol” in 2010 and publishing her sometimes unsettling memoir “From This Moment On” in 2011, Twain returned to the stage three years ago at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, where Celine Dion, Elton John and Bette Midler also have done residencies. It was an elaborate, glitzy show titled “Shania: Still the One,” featuring her riding a horse onstage and gliding on a motorcycle over the stage.

“The audiences there were very close to the stage — it was one of the luxuries I enjoyed,” Twain said. “I like to see the people close up and touch the people.”

Two years of Vegas performances convinced her to figuratively declare, “Man, I feel like touring.”

So she put together the 67-concert Rock This Country Tour for North America, a show that’s completely different from her Vegas production.

“It’s like a reunion of sorts with the fans,” she explained. “A lot has happened in the last decade in all of our lives. Music is bringing us back together and we’re going to celebrate and reminisce to all of the hits that they know. In my case, a lot of the kids I would have seen on tour years ago are going to be adults now.”

No new album yet

But the best intentions don’t always go as planned. The country/pop queen had hoped to release a new album this year — her first since 2002’s “Up,” her third consecutive blockbuster. But she’s not even close to being finished. In fact, she doesn’t anticipate performing any new tunes on the current tour. “I don’t want to bore people with songs they don’t know,” said the singer who disappeared after her 2004 hits collection.

Twain plans to write and record songs during the tour, working with various producers whom she declined to name. Rest assured one of them won’t be Mutt Lange, her ex-husband, who guided her to those three albums that sold a combined 43 million copies in just the United States.

From the road, she’ll Skype with her producers, she says, on songs whose style is hard for her to explain.

“It’s different from what I’ve done in the past. I’m writing it myself so there is no influence from outside. I’ve evolved and have different things to say and express that weren’t true about me 10 to 15 years ago. It’s been a very therapeutic process for me. I’m pouring my heart out in the music, whether it’s in the lyrics or the melodies and chord progressions.”

Her enthusiasm was palpable over the telephone. “I could just do that, write music, and be very satisfied — and I’m learning that about myself,” she proclaimed.

Farewell tour

While Twain is vague about her next album, she’s clear about one thing: This will be her last concert tour.

“I’m going to have a lot of fun with this tour,” she said before the trek started on June 5. “I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit. That will be emotional to me. I’m putting my best foot forward in every way — technologically, psychologically. It’s a bit of a bittersweet experience.”

There’s another big change coming in the life of the Canadian-born Eileen Edwards (her stepfather’s surname was Twain, and she adopted Shania, Ojibwe for “on the move,” when she moved to Nashville in 1993).

On Aug. 28, she will turn 50. It doesn’t depress her much.

“I think it’s an inspiration and a motivator to be my best,” she acknowledged. “I sort of feel if I don’t push myself and bring myself to be the best that I can be now, it’s only going to get harder after that. You’ve got to be the fittest you can be, the most educated you can be, the happiest you can be. And I feel it sets a positive, strong platform for myself to jump from. And it sets the tone for the rest of my life is how I see it.”

Twain might leave the stage behind after her Rock This Country Tour plays Toronto in October but she’s not saying “I’m outta here.”

“It’s certainly not my retirement from music,” she said without missing a beat. “I’ll be doing that until the day I die. The performance side of it, I feel, is a phase in my life. I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old. I really put in my fair share of performance.

“I want to write more. I want to make a lot more records. I miss making records, and I haven’t made enough records in my life. I also want to write songs for other artists who are coming up and enjoy them having their moment on the stage.”

http://www.startribune.com/country-pop-queen-shania-twain-talks-comeback-tour-vocal-problems-new-music/318138141/

Shania Twain talks touring, turning 50 and making new music

By Melissa Ruggieri | Atlanta Journal-Constitution | July 30, 2015

In early June, Shania Twain stepped onto a stage in Seattle and launched her first tour in more than a decade.

It’s also, she insists, her final tour.

Well, who can blame her, then, for lightening her famous chestnut mane to engage in some blondes-have-more-fun revelry?

Twain is still the biggest-selling female in the history of country music with more than 85 million records sold. In 2012, she returned to performing live with a two-year residency in Las Vegas in a show jammed with hits (and some horses).

A few weeks before the kickoff of her five-month “Rock This Country” outing, Twain chatted with reporters about her plans for the future — expect to hear new, self-penned music — as well as the production and set list for the show, which lands at Philips Arena on Saturday.

No, the horses aren’t coming.

What fans can expect from her live production:

“The tour is called ‘Rock This Country’ and it’s a celebration tour for a lot of reasons. I’m reuniting with the fans in their hometowns. It is a goodbye to the stage, so the show is full of great technology. It’s a very dynamic show. It’s a whole new fresh production, entirely different from Vegas. It’s going to rock and it will be a lot of fun.”

How she chooses her set list:

“There won’t be any new music from the new album on the set list at this point, (but) maybe closer to the end of the tour, I might be able to pull some of that music in. I don’t want to bore people with songs they don’t know. When I go to a concert, I want to hear the songs that I’m familiar with. … This tour is really about the classics. The point is to say goodbye to the stage on a high with my friends, with my fans.”

What is it like during a typical day on tour?

“It’s pretty much strictly work. On one of my tours, I took my horse with me. That was very unique. It took a bit of planning, but it was my way of getting exercise and getting out and seeing the landscape and I love my horses. This tour will be a little more focused on making my new record. When I’m not onstage or traveling, I will be recording vocals or working on the songwriting, so I’m not going to be able to get out much on this tour.”

How she feels going back on the road:

“I’m going to have a lot of fun with this tour. I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit, but I’m in a reunion spirit to get back together with the fans again and that will be emotional to me. I’m putting my best foot forward in every way, technologically, psychologically; it’s a bit of a bittersweet experience.”

What she learned during her residency in Las Vegas:

“It’s certainly the reason I decided to go out on the tour. During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I’d missed being out on the touring stage and missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me. I figured it would be fun for me to go and visit other towns and experience that excitement. … There were a lot of things to learn in Vegas, that’s for sure! The audiences there were very close to the stage. It was one of the luxuries I enjoyed. I like to see the people close up and touch the people.”

The sound of her new music:

“Stylistically, it’s hard for me to explain; it’s different from what I’ve done in the past. The songs and the spirit of the songs are still very relatable. I think it’s going to be a lot of unexpected elements to the music. I’m writing it myself so there is no influence from outside, so it will naturally give a different spirit to the music. I’ve evolved and have different things to say and express that weren’t true about me 10 or 15 years ago. It’s very personalized songwriting. It’s been a very therapeutic process for me. I’m pouring my heart out in the music, whether it’s in the lyrics or the melodies and chord progressions. It’s been a really great experience. I could just do that, write music, and be very satisfied and I’m learning that about myself.”

How she got her voice back (prior to her Vegas stint, Twain had vocal problems and feared she would never sing again):

“It was a lot of work, a lot of physiotherapy and vocal therapy. Persistence, determination, because like any physiotherapy, it’s hard, it’s tedious, it’s repetitive, it’s boring, it’s painful a lot of the time, very similar to how an athlete would have to go through it if they had an injury. I need an hour and a half of physical and vocal warmup now before shows.”

On turning 50 (she hits the milestone on Aug. 28):

“I think anybody in the second half of their 40s is already considering what it’s going to mean to be 50, and for me, I think it’s an inspiration and a motivator to be my best. I sort of feel if I don’t push myself and bring myself to be the best that I can be now, it’s only going to get harder after that. You’ve got to be the fittest you can be, the most educated you can be, the happiest you can be and I feel it sets a positive, strong platform for myself to jump from, and it sets the tone for the rest of my life, is how I see it.”

So, is this the end?

“It’s certainly not my retirement from music. I’ll be doing that until the day I die. But the performance side of it I feel is a phase in my life. I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old. I really put in my fair share of performances. I want to write more, I want to make a lot more records. I miss making records and I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career. I also want to write songs for other artists who are coming up and enjoy them having their moment on the stage.”

------------------------

CONCERT PREVIEW

Shania Twain

With Gavin DeGraw. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1. $46-$136. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.

http://music.blog.ajc.com/2015/07/30/shania-twain-talks-touring-turning-50-and-making-new-music/

Shania Twain returns to Dallas to say goodbye

By Preston Jones | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | August 5, 2015

Shania Twain

7:30 p.m. Monday

American Airlines Center, Dallas

$46-$136 ticketmaster.com

The last time Shania Twain toured the country, way back in 2003, she dominated the music industry, earning the title “queen of country pop.”

The Canadian native was just a couple years removed from winning three Grammys, and on her way to selling 85 million albums worldwide, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history.

Then, in 2004, Twain released her greatest hits album, and disappeared to Switzerland for the better part of the decade.

Her personal life disintegrated: Twain divorced producer Mutt Lange in 2010, amid allegations of his infidelity, and remarried the following year.

If that turmoil wasn’t enough, Twain suffered a professional scare, with a diagnosis of lesions on her vocal cords. Through it all, Twain worked, fitfully, on the as-yet-unreleased follow-up to her last studio album, 2002’s Up!

But her public hiatus has fully ended after a successful two-year stint with a residency that began in 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, as Twain has mounted “Rock This Country,” her first American tour in 11 years.

The success of that residency — “Shania: Still the One” reportedly grossed more than $40 million — and reconnecting with her passionate fans inspired Twain to return to the road.

“During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized I missed being out on the touring stage,” Twain told reporters during a May teleconference. “So I thought it would be fun to go out and visit [fans] in their own hometowns and enjoy that experience and atmosphere again.”

Twain will perform at Dallas’ American Airlines Center Monday, in her first North Texas appearance in 12 years.

“It’s a very exciting time for me,” Twain said. “A lot has happened over the last decade — in my life and [fans’] lives. Music is bringing us back together; we’re going to celebrate and reminisce with all the hits they know and have lived with all these years.”

The 49-year-old Twain (who turns 50 Aug. 28) has been up front about this current tour, which is scheduled to travel to Europe next summer, as being her final, large-scale outing.

“I will be doing music I'm sure until the day I die,” Twain said in May. “I love music too much. ... The time is right now to do other things. I want to write more; I miss making records. I haven’t made enough records in my life and my career. I’ve done a lot more live performance than recording. I just see it as an evolution in my career, really.”

While she freely discusses evolution and a desire to record more, Twain says set lists won’t feature too much, if any, new material. Twain is aiming to release a new record some time in the next year, but she’s keeping her “Rock This Country” shows focused squarely on the hits that catapulted her to superstardom.

“It’s difficult to know when the new album will be ready,” Twain said. “I don’t want to bore people either. I know when I go to concerts, I want to hear the songs I already know. If it’s close enough to when I want to release something, I may work in one or two [new songs].”

For all that’s different since Twain’s last trip through town — pre-YouTube; pre-iPhone — one unchanged aspect of the music industry is the insistence on boxing artists into specific genres. Twain was widely praised as a crossover artist, beginning as a notionally country act which also enjoyed staggering success on the pop charts.

“Ever since I started listening to radio as a small child, the genres have gone in every possible direction I could ever have imagined,” Twain said. “I think [genre is] a moving target and I enjoy that ... I never felt it was necessary to box things in. I never saw myself as any one thing, or labeled myself specifically. It was a pleasant surprise when my music ended up being a cross-genre thing, [by] just being myself and it landing wherever people decided it landed.”

All that time and so much transition — Twain is largely untouched by it all. Her voice has the same sleek power it did when her songs were in inescapably heavy rotation in the early aughts, and her buoyant, country-pop songs have aged rather well — an argument could be made for Twain anticipating Nashville’s pivot toward the bright and shiny a full decade before it actually happened.

Regardless, Twain won’t be thinking about such heady things when she steps on stage in Dallas.

“This tour is really all about the classics,” Twain said in May. “The reason for the tour is to say goodbye to the stage on a high and with my friends, my fans.”

http://www.dfw.com/2015/08/05/1018511/shania-twain-returns-to-say-goodbye.html

Interview: Shania Twain makes a comeback with her farewell tour, playing Oklahoma City Wednesday

By Brandy McDonnell | The Oklahoman | August 7, 2015

The best thing about being a woman, Shania Twain once opined, is the prerogative to have a little fun.

Since the country-pop superstar's "Rock This Country" trek serves as both a reunion series and a farewell tour, she's seizing that prerogative.

“It’s just a celebration tour for a lot of reasons. I’m reuniting with the fans out in their own hometowns; that I have not done in a decade. It is a goodbye to the stage, so the show is just full of great technology, the highest-end possible. It’s a very dynamic show, more dynamic than ever before, and I just think no one has ever seen me in this light ever before,” Twain said in a May conference call before launching her first tour in 11 years.

“I think it will be memorable. It’s gonna rock, that’s for sure, and it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m in a good spirit for it and just trying to visit the fans’ hometowns and come to them. Because the last two years in Las Vegas, the fans have been coming to me, so I really feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show, this big sign-off, this big farewell.”

One of the best-selling female recording artists in music history, Twain, who turns 50 on Aug. 28, will rock this part of the country Wednesday at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Since it’s the music that’s bringing her back together with her fans, the Canadian country-rocker said her new shows focus on her humungous hits from the 1990s and early 2000s -- "Any Man of Mine,”  "That Don't Impress Me Much,” “You’re Still the One,” "Man, I Feel Like a Woman,” "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" and more -- gilded with plenty of lasers, pyrotechnics and sexy sequined outfits.

Back the saddle

During the shows, Twain has been literally getting back in the saddle -- a fringed one attached to a telescopic lift that boosts her up and closer to the audience. She told me coming a little closer was a goal for the tour after her two-year residency at Sin City’s legendary Caesars Palace.

“The audiences there were very close to the stage, so it was one of the luxuries that I enjoyed because I love to see the people close up. I love to touch the people and mingle with them, and so it was really cool to do so much of that then,” she told me during the teleconference.

“What I learned was, I have to do more of this, I want to do more of this, and I want to make sure that when I go out on the road and we do this tour, that I don’t miss out on that. I have to make sure that I’m able to get out there into the audience and touch people and look at them in the eye and be among them. … So, that’s been part of the plan and that’s been built into the production.”

The influential “Queen of Country Pop” said the connection to the fans was what she missed most as a planned short sabbatical stretched into a decade-long break from show business. Twain is the only artist to have three consecutive albums sell more than 10 million copies in the United States -- 1995’s “The Woman In Me,” 1997’s “Come On Over” and 2002’s “Up!” -- and “Come On Over” was a bona fide global phenomenon, becoming the best-selling country album of all time and the best-selling album ever released by a female artist. 

“Initially, why I had slowed down after the last tour was more just for the break and to be a mom, and those few years after the last tour were very deliberately to concentrate on my son and my home because at the end of that tour my son was just starting school for the first time. … Then the problems started compounding with the voice and so on and so forth,” she said.

“I’ve evolved a lot over the years. My life has changed so dramatically and my point of view has changed in a lot of ways, the way I see my role on stage and what I mean to fans and what they mean to me, all of that is more valuable and just another level of maturity that I have now -- and gratitude.”

Along with a painful divorce from her husband, producer and co-writer Robert “Mutt” Lange, Twain also struggled with lesions on her vocal cords and a vocal impairment called dysphonia. She said she went through a long, painful rehabilitation process similar to one an athlete would undertake for a major injury. She now requires 90 minutes of physical and vocal warmups before a show.

“It went way beyond not being able to perform or concerns for my career … it was a part of me I was losing, like losing a hand or something. I was going through a grieving process. I really thought that I lost my voice, the voice that I knew and the voice that I once had. It was very scary, and it was just something I was having a terrible time coming to terms with,” she said. “It was a lot of work. … It’s tedious. It’s repetitive. It’s boring. It’s tiring. It’s painful a lot of the time.” 

Farewell to the stage

Although her North American comeback tour has already been expanded into late October -- and according to Billboard, an international trek is likely -- the singer-songwriter said she intends it to be her last.

“It’s certainly not my retirement from music. I will be doing music, I’m sure, until the day I die,” she said with a laugh. “I love music too much. The performance side of it, I feel, is a phase in my life and I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m 50 this year, I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve really put in my fair share of performance. And (I'm) feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically. I want to write more, I want to make lots more records. I miss making records, and I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career.”

Even when she almost lost her voice, Twain said she never stopped writing songs. Known for breaking down boundaries between genres during her heyday, she has noticed that the lines between formats have blurred even more since she recorded “Up.” That makes it an exciting time to make a new album, and she shared her plans to use a portable recording setup to keep working on the new project during the tour.

“I don’t know really how it’s going to turn out stylistically. Right now, it’s just me and my guitar so that’s kind of blank as far as being able to pinpoint where it will really end up as a finished record, once it’s produced. But I want to take a very organic approach to it. I’m leaning towards wanting the music to sound more organic than my previous stuff,” she said.

“But lyrically I’m still doing the self-reflection and kind of writing in that vein. I’m just different now, and I’ve lived a lot of different things since then. So, the stories and the themes will be obviously different and will reflect how I’ve evolved.”

IN CONCERT

Shania Twain

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W Reno.

Information: (800) 745-3000 or www.chesapeakearena.com.

http://newsok.com/interview-shania-twain-makes-a-comeback-with-her-farewell-tour-playing-oklahoma-city-wednesday/article/5438042

Shania Twain brings final tour to Salt Lake on Saturday

By L. Kent Wolgamott | Salt Lake City Daily Herald | August 11, 2015

If You Go

SHANIA TWAIN

When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Energy Solutions Arena, 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City

Support act: Gavin DeGraw

Tickets: $43-$133, available at the box office or through Smith’s Tix (800-888-TIXX, smithstix.com) locations

Info: (801) 325-SEAT, energysolutionsarena.com, smithstix.com

Shania Twain hadn’t been on tour for more than a decade before she began her “Rock This Country” excursion this summer. And she doesn’t plan to ever be back on the road again.

The '90s country star, who has sold more than 85 million albums, isn’t quitting music altogether. But she says she’s shutting down touring once her current “Rock This Country” trek wraps up in October. She brings the tour to Salt Lake City on Saturday, with a show at EnergySolutions Arena.

“This is certainly not my retirement from music,” Twain said in a pre-tour telephone news conference. “I will be doing music, I’m sure, until the day I die. I love music too much. The performance side of it, I feel is a phase in my life. I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m 50 this year. I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve really put in my fair share of performance. I’m feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically.

“I want to write more. I want to make lots more records. I miss making records, and I haven’t made enough records in my life and my career,” she said. “I also want to write songs for other artists that are coming up and I want to sit back and enjoy them having their moment on the stage and being proud that I’m being proud of their success. ... That’s a whole exciting phase for me that I look forward to. I just see it as an evolution in my career really.”

In fact, Twain has begun recording a new album -- her first since 2002’s “Up!” Generally artists wait until the record is completed before touring. But the timing didn’t work for Twain, who is coming off a two-year residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

She isn’t doing any new material on yet -- it’s a possibility for later in the tour. But she’s going to be singing new songs throughout the summer as she makes the new record while on the road utilizing a mobile recording setup.

“I’m going to try to squeeze in working on the album while I’m on the tour,” Twain said. “There’s going to be a little bit of tug of war for my time in getting this music finished. ... On my off days and time when I’m not on stage and traveling, I’ll be recording vocals or working on the songwriting and so on. I’m going to pretty much be working between the stage and the new album.”

That means that Twain’s show will be a retrospective affair, a last chance for fans to hear her sing songs like “Any Man of Mine,” “You’re Still the One” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”

“It’s the classic stuff that everybody knows. That’s what this tour is all about -- bringing the hits to everybody, bringing them to their hometowns,” she said. “For me, this tour is about reuniting with the fans, I haven’t done it in a long time. The reason for the tour is to say goodbye to the stage on a high, with my friends, with my fans.”

Those hits, which started in 1995 with her “The Woman in Me” album, were on the country charts. But Twain’s music blurred the then-sharper distinctions between country, rock and pop -- foreshadowing the crossover that typifies the sound of country’s current hitmakers.

Any kind of genre division has never been in Twain’s mind.

“I never really felt it was necessary to box anything in,” she said. “It was a lot more fun to watch things evolve and cross boundaries. That’s what I ended up doing in my own career. I never saw myself as any one thing and I never labeled my own self specifically or wrote music for any one genre. It was a pleasant surprise when my music ended up a cross-genre thing.”

Twain’s string of hits ended just over a decade ago, about the same time she left road. Initially, she took a hiatus from touring to concentrate on being a mom, raising her son who had just started school when her last tour ended.

That hiatus grew longer, and along the way there was major upheaval when, in 2008, Twain discovered her then-husband, producer Robert “Mutt” Lange was having an affair. The couple divorced, and in a soap opera-worthy turn, Twain began dating and, in 2011, married Frederic Thiebaud, whose former wife, Marie-Anne, was having the affair with Lange and had been Twain’s best friend.

Then came another huge scare, as Twain began to lose her voice, not just for singing, but even speaking.

“It was very, very scary,” Twain said. “It went way beyond not being able to perform. It certainly went beyond concerns for my career and not having a career as a singer. It was a part of me that I was losing, like losing a hand or something. It was going through a grieving process. I really thought I lost my voice, the voice that I knew, the voice I once had. It was very scary and it was just something I was having a terrible time coming to terms with. Before I gave up on it completely, luckily, I found the courage to tackle it and take it on.”

Lesions were found on Twain’s vocal cords and she was diagnosed with dysphonia. Once treated, Twain was able to resume her singing career, opting first for the Vegas residency.

“During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized I’ve missed being out on the touring stage, missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me,” Twain said, explaining why she’s now on the road. “I enjoyed Vegas, but it was a motivation to one more time experience going out into the arena setting and being with people in their home towns.”

Twain said she’s taking one thing from her Vegas shows on the road. In the smaller, controlled room she was able to get up close and personal with the audience.

“I have to make sure I’m able to get out there in the audience and touch people and look people in the eye and be among them,” she said. “There’s a plan for that. It’s something I’m going to take with me on the tour, even though it won’t be as easy to do.”

Twain promises the most dynamic show she’s ever done with top-flight production as she wraps up her touring career with a bang.

“I think it will be memorable. It’s going to rock,” she said. “That’s for sure. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m in a good spirit for it. I really feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show, this big sign-off, this big farewell.”

But she admits there’s a tinge of sadness as well.

“I’m savoring it because it is my last tour,” Twain said. “I’m in a farewell spirit, I’m in a reunion spirit. It will be very emotional for me. ... It’s a bit of a bittersweet experience.”

http://www.heraldextra.com/entertainment/music/shania-twain-brings-final-tour-to-salt-lake-on-saturday/article_e515eaaa-7b3d-5b8b-9566-cb78e74bd608.html

Shania Twain’s ready to leave the stage, focus on music

By Joshua Tehee | The Fresno Bee | August 20, 2015

Highlights
- Singer’s ‘Rock this Country’ tour stops at Save Mart Center Aug. 23
- The tour is her first since 2004
- In the future, she plans to focus on writing music

Shania Twain’s “Rock this Country” tour is a reunion and retirement.

The tour, which lands Sunday, Aug. 23, at the Save Mart Center, is a reintroduction to fans, who haven’t seen the country singer in more than a decade. Twain’s last last tour was in 2004.

It promises to be unlike anything she has done before. It’s bigger, better and with more dynamic high-tech production. Already, the tour has nearly sold out in 70 cities and is ranked as a top 10 global concert tour by Fresno-based trade publication Pollstar.

It also promises to be the singer’s last, ending a performance career that started at 8 years old and earned her a spot as country music’s seminal crossover star.

“This is the end,” Twain says in a teleconference interview. “I’m going to have the most fun I’ve had on stage.”

In the mid-1990s, Shania Twain was arguably the most popular country music artist in the world. Her music took contemporary country-pop and gave it the kind of rock production normally applied to bands like AC/DC or Def Leppard. Her 1997 record “Come on Over” became the best-selling country album of all time and made Twain an MTV sensation. She was the face of empowered female pop in the years before Britney Spears. She was also the face of Revlon.

Since her last tour, Twain has been mostly absent from the music world. She took a break to raise her son, then had a messy (and much publicized) split from her husband record producer Mutt Lange and suffered vocal cord damage that made her question whether she would sing again.

Those struggles went far beyond career concerns, Twain says, and were only overcome with massive amount of physio- and vocal therapy and adjusting to the fact that her voice had changed and would never be quite the same.

The effects on her voice still linger. Her nightly warm ups are now an hour-and-a-half process of body and vocal exercises.

Twain reemerged in 2012 with a much publicized residency at The Colosseum at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. The show ran for two years, got rave reviews and convinced the singer she needed to go back on the road one last time.

For two years, the fans came to her. She was ready to go to the fans, to meet them in their hometowns.

“I realized I missed being out on the touring stage,” she says.

This tour is informed by her Vegas experience in other ways, too. Those shows were in a controlled environment, she says. She played the same venue every night to audiences that were close to the stage. She performed among them. The trick of this tour was finding a way to translate that intimacy into an arena atmosphere.

She has. The production includes giant video screens and a mechanical saddle that puts Twain right out and above the crowds.

While she loves the interaction of being on stage, Twain has realized that the performing part of her career was a phase. She’s become less extroverted in her creative pursuits.

And those creative pursuits take focus and time, two thing that can be in short supply while on the road, she says. In fact, this tour is a tug-of-war between playing the hits every night and working on her new album. She’s writing songs and recording vocals in mobile studios in between stops. The album will likely be done just as the tour is completed.

Writing music is enough, she says. Twain would be fine leaving the performing to someone else entirely. She hopes to do as much in the future. Post-tour, she’ll devote more time to writing songs for other artists.

Twain devoted a large part of her career to performing. Perhaps too large.

“I haven’t made enough records in my life,” she says. “I’ve got a whole bunch of album that I still want to make.”

Shania Twain

Concert preview

• 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23
• Save Mart Center
• Tickets: $46-$136
• (800) 745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

http://www.fresnobee.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article31464056.html

Shania Twain plays Spokane Arena on final tour

By Nathan Weinbender | The Spokesman-Review | September 10, 2015

If you go

Shania Twain

With Gavin DeGraw When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave.

Cost: $46-$136; tickets are available at all TicketsWest outlets.

In 2004, Shania Twain was one of the biggest performers in the world.

With hit songs like “Any Man of Mine,” “You’re Still the One,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!,” she was as dominant a presence on the country charts as the Top 40 charts, a feat few artists pre-Taylor Swift had pulled off. Her 1997 album “Come On Over” remains the highest-selling country record ever; it’s also sold more copies than any other album by a solo female artist.

But after seven No. 1 country singles and a 2003 tour supporting her fourth LP “Up!,” Twain seemed to go AWOL. She returned to the stage for a two-year residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 2012, but it was obvious that her recording career had slowed to a trickle.

Now the country superstar is back on the road for the first time in 11 years, and with it comes rumors of an upcoming album. Twain has announced that her ongoing “Rock This Country” tour, which makes a stop at the Spokane Arena on Saturday, is likely going to be her last.

“It’s certainly not my retirement from music,” Twain said during a conference call with The Spokesman-Review and others. “I’m 50 this year, I’ve been onstage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve put in my fair share of performances. … The time is just right now to do other things musically. I want to write more, I want to make lots more records. I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career.”

Twain said her Vegas show, “Shania: Still the One,” reignited her interest in touring.

“During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I missed being out on the touring stage,” Twain said. “I enjoyed Vegas very much for a lot of reasons, but it was a motivation to one more time experience going out in the arena setting and be with people in their hometowns. … For the last two years, the fans have been coming to me. I feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show.”

The Vegas show also informed the layout and pyrotechnics of the current tour. Twain says she was able to interact more directly with her Vegas audiences than in previous shows, and she wants to be in close proximity with her fans who are front and center.

“The audiences (in Vegas) were very close to the stage,” she said. “It was one of the luxuries I enjoy, because I like to see the people close up. … I have to make sure that I’m able to get out into the audience … so there’s a plan for that.”

Twain says that an album of all-new material is imminent, but she’s not sure exactly when it’s going to be done. The tour, though, is intended to be a celebration of her hits, even if the inclusion of a new track or two is still a possibility.

“This tour’s really all about the classics,” Twain said. “If it’s close enough to when I’m about to release something, I think it would be fair then to play one or two new songs off the new album. I’m dying to do it … but I’m not sure I’d want that myself if I was going to see my favorite artist and I wanted to hear their hit songs. But if the album progresses quickly enough and the timing works out, I might just put one or two new songs in.”

And now that she can officially stamp her touring career with an expiration date – her final show is next month in her native Canada – Twain says she’s focused on luxuriating in the experience.

“I’m having a lot more fun now,” she said. “I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit. I’m in a reunion spirit to get back together with the fans after all these years. It’ll be very emotional for me.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/sep/10/shania-twain-plays-spokane-arena-on-final-tour/

5 Spot: Key quotes from Shania Twain before her Fargodome concert

By Ryan Johnson | The InForum | September 18, 2015 at 1:49 a.m.

FARGO – The third time's the charm — and the last time we'll be able to see Shania Twain perform at the Fargodome.

The country-pop superstar's "Rock This World" tour, coming to Fargo on Monday with opening act Gavin DeGraw, is her farewell tour. It's also the first time in more than a decade that Twain has toured after a long hiatus and a two-year Las Vegas residency that ended last December.

She's played the Fargodome two other times, drawing a crowd of nearly 25,000 in 1998 and more than 18,000 in 2004.

Twain, 50, hasn't granted media interviews since launching her tour in June. But she opened up during a May conference call with reporters about her long break from music and her return to touring.

Here are five key quotes from that interview that shed some light on Twain's recent past and what's next after she's done performing.

On touring and seeing the fans again: "It's like a reunion of sorts. A lot has happened over the last decade since I've been off tour in all of our lives, my life and in their lives, and music is bringing us back together, and we're going to celebrate and reminisce to all of the hits that they know and that we've all lived with for all these years now."

On her plans to keep singing and recording music after she quits touring: "The performance side of it I feel is a phase in my life and I've been doing it for so long. I'm 50 this year, I've been on stage since I was 8 years old and I've really put in my fair share of performance and feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically."

On kicking off her farewell tour: "It's a bit of a bittersweet experience. I'm almost afraid to start it because I think that once it starts, it's going to go by very quickly and then all of a sudden it will be done."

On songwriting and her hope to keep writing music after she's done touring: "I could just write music and be very satisfied, and I'm learning that about myself to be honest. I'm feeling less extrovert about the need to express my music and more content just creating it."

On years of vocal problems before rehabilitation helped her get back to singing: "Before I gave up on it completely, luckily I found the courage to tackle it and take it on. But the period where I believed that I would never sing again was incredibly depressing. It was, grief is the best way I can explain it. I was really grieving the loss of the voice that I knew and that I had."

http://www.inforum.com/variety/3841530-5-spot-key-quotes-shania-twain-her-fargodome-concert

Shania Twain to continue to 'Rock the Country'

By L. Kent Wolgamott | Lincoln Journal Star | September 17, 2015 11:45 pm

If you go

What: Shania Twain with Gavin DeGraw

Where: Pinnacle Bank Arena, 400 Pinnacle Arena Dr.

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24

Tickets: $136, $86, $66, $45 plus applicable fees; available at the arena ticket office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000

Shania Twain has changed her mind.

In May, just before she began her summer tour, the '90s country star said when she finished the “Rock the Country” tour in October, she was done performing.

“This is certainly not my retirement from music,” Twain said in a telephone news conference then. “I will be doing music, I’m sure, until the day I die. I love music too much. The performance side of it, I feel is a phase in my life. I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m 50 this year. I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve really put in my fair share of performance. I’m feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically.

“I want to write more. I want to make lots more records. I miss making records, and I haven’t made enough records in my life and my career… I also want to write songs for other artists that are coming up, and I want to sit back and enjoy them having their moment on the stage and being proud that I’m being proud of their success….That’s a whole exciting phase for me that I look forward to. I just see it as an evolution in my career really.”

Last month, however, Twain told the Las Vegas Sun that the response to the tour that began in early June has been so good that she will extend it.

“The tour is tiring, but I’m loving it,” Twain said to the Sun. “It’s becoming far more meaningful than I thought it would be. So many young people are turning out. We are getting an interesting cross-section of people in our audiences that makes it really great….It’s going so well that I’ve decided I’d like to extend it. I’m not ready to stop.”

Before she continues the tour, however, Twain said she was going to finish a new album that would be her first since 2002’s “Up.” Then she said she would like to take “Rock the Country” to Europe, Australia and New Zealand, then return to Las Vegas for another two-year residency like the one she recently wrapped up at Caesar’s Palace.

There won’t be any new material in Twain’s Pinnacle Bank Arena show Thursday. But she’s been singing new songs throughout the summer, as she’s cutting the new record while on the road, utilizing a mobile recording setup.

“There’s going to be a little bit of tug of war for my time in getting this music finished,” she said in the teleconference. “On my days off and time when I’m not on stage and traveling, I’ll be recording vocals or working on the songwriting and so on. I’m going to pretty much be working between the stage and the new album.”

That means that Twain’s show is a retrospective affair, a chance for fans to hear her sing songs like “Any Man of Mine,” “You’re Still the One” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”

“It’s the classic stuff that everybody knows. That’s what this tour is all about -- bringing the hits to everybody, bringing them to their hometowns,” she said. “For me, this tour is about reuniting with the fans, I haven’t done it in a long time. The reason for the tour is to say goodbye to the stage on a high, with my friends, with my fans.”

Those hits, which started in 1995 with her “The Woman in Me” album, were on the country charts. But Twain’s music blurred the then-sharper distinctions between country, rock and pop -- foreshadowing the crossover that typifies the sound of country’s hitmakers.

Any kind of genre division has never been in Twain’s mind.

“I never really felt it was necessary to box anything in,” she said. “It was a lot more fun to watch things evolve and cross boundaries. That’s what I ended up doing in my own career. I never saw myself as any one thing, and I never labeled my own self specifically or wrote music for any one genre. It was a pleasant surprise when my music ended up a cross-genre thing.”

Twain’s string of hits ended just over a decade ago, about the same time she left the road. Initially, she took a hiatus from touring to concentrate on being a mom, raising her son, who had just started school when her last tour ended.

The hiatus grew ever longer as Twain began to lose her voice, not just for singing.

“It was very, very scary,” she said. “It went way beyond not being able to perform. It certainly went beyond concerns for my career and not having a career as a singer. It was a part of me that I was losing, like losing a hand or something. I was going through a grieving process. I really thought I lost my voice, the voice that I knew, the voice I once had. It was very scary, and it was just something I was having a terrible time coming to terms with. Before I gave up on it completely, luckily, I found the courage to tackle it and take it on. 

Lesions were found on Twain’s vocal cords and she was diagnosed with dysphonia. Once treated, Twain was able to resume her singing career, opting first for the Vegas residency.

“During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized I’ve missed being out on the touring stage, missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me,” she said. “I enjoyed Vegas, but it was a motivation to one more time experience going out into the arena setting and being with people in their home towns.”

Twain said she’s taking one thing from her Vegas shows into arenas. In the smaller, controlled room she was able to get up close and personal with the audience.

“I have to make sure I’m able to get out there in the audience and touch people and look people in the eye and be among them,” she said. “There’s a plan for that. It’s something I’m going to take with me on the tour, even though it won’t be as easy to do.”

Twain promises the most dynamic show she’s ever done with top-flight production.

“I think it will be memorable. it’s going to rock,” she said back in May. “That’s for sure. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m in a good spirit for it. I really feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show, this big sign-off, this big farewell.”

Except it may no longer be a farewell.

http://journalstar.com/entertainment/music/shania-twain-to-continue-to-rock-the-country/article_6f54d369-83ce-5608-b41d-43dee60380a9.html

Interviewing Shania Twain: On last tour, coming to Allentown's PPL Center, singer wants to prove she's 'Still The One'

By John J. Moser | The Morning Call | September 25, 2015, 4:59 PM

For someone who says she’s on the final tour of her career, Shania Twain, the second-best-selling female country singer of all time, sure sounds wistful about being on the road again.

She doesn’t sound like someone who’s ready to walk away from giving live performances of her 22 Top 20 country hits, seven of which hit No. 1. Or like someone who’s preparing to release her first studio album in more than a dozen years.

But that’s precisely what Twain says will happen.

After debuting with her self-titled platinum disc in 1993, Twain shot to superstardom. Her 1995 sophomore disc, “The Woman in Me,” sold a staggering 12 million copies. She topped that with 1997’s “Come On Over,” selling 20 million copies. And 2002’s “Up” sold 11 million more.

In just six years, Twain had six gold or platinum singles, including her biggest, the double-platinum “You’re Still The One.”

Most of her hits, including “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” also crossed over to the general music charts, as she was one of the first country artists to embrace a more pop-rock sound. She also won five Grammy Awards.

But by the end of her last tour in 2004, Twain says she decided to focus more on being a mother and largely stepped away from the music scene.

She then developed lesions on her vocal cords that she says not only left her unable to sing, but threatened her voice entirely.

Through therapy, Twain rehabilitated her voice and in 2012 returned to the concert stage with a Las Vegas stage show “Still The One.”

She also began working on a new album, with the intention of releasing it to coincide with the new tour, but the disc has taken far longer than expected. That means she’s working on it as she tours.

In a recent telephone all, Twain talked about her career, her vocal problems, her comeback and the future.

Here is an edited transcript of the call:

We’ll do the obvious question to start: It’s been a long time since you’ve been out on a full tour like that, and even in your press release you said you’ll have more to share as a performer now that you’re going back out on tour. I’m curious how you think fans will see a different Shania. What’s going to be different about who you are on stage, what you do, and what you’re capable of bringing to the show?“

Well, it’s a very exciting time for me. I think the fans – I think we’re going to be re-introduced to each other is the best way I can put it. And that in itself is very exciting. It’s like a reunion of sorts. A lot has happened over the last decade, since I’ve been off tour, in all of our lives – my life and in their lives. And music is bringing us back together and we’re going to celebrate and reminisce with all of the hits that they know and that we’ve all lived with for all these years now.

“And in my case, it’s a lot of the kids that were listening to the music years ago, that I would have seen on tour years ago, that are going to be adults now. And it’s just exciting for me to be able to be reunited with them. And I have to say the most rewarding thing for me – and the thing I’m looking most forward to on this tour – is seeing the fans and being with them again and feeling their excitement and sharing mine with them.”

So there’s been a lot of talk about this tour being something that’s the last for you. Is this the last tour, or are you looking for retirement from music one day? Can you kind of clarify what it is that this is the end of?

“Well, it’s certainly not my retirement from music. I will be doing music, I’m sure, till the day I die [laughs]. I love music too much.

“Um, the performance side of it, I feel, is a phase in my life, and I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m 50 this year, I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve really put in my fair share of performance. And feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically. I want to write more. I want to make lots more records. I miss making records and I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career. I’ve done a lot more live performing than I have recording, so I want to do a lot more of that.

“And I also want to write songs for other artists. Other artists who are coming up. And I want to sit back and enjoy them having their moment on the stage and being proud that I’m part of their success. And watching my music as the observer, from the audience.

“So that’s a while other exciting phase for me that I look forward to. So I just see it as an evolution in my career, really.”

It’s been more than a decade since your last North American tour, and the pop landscape has changed a lot since you first broke big. I mean, you were one of the first artists to really break down those walls between what’s traditionally considered country, rock and pop. How do you feel about the very, very mainstream pop push that country music has had in the last couple of years – and that being the kind of pop landscape that you’re setting out into with this tour?

“Well, you know, ever since I started listening to radio as a small child, the genres have gone in every possible direction I could have ever imagined. And what falls into any specific genre has changed and evolved. And then also new genres, you know, there’s new genres all the time coming out.

“So I just think it’s a moving target, and I’ve enjoyed that. I always enjoyed following that; I’ve enjoyed new things, new music, new styles, new artists, new ideas and concepts and I never really felt that it was necessary to box anything in. And that it was a lot more fun to watch … for things to evolve and to cross boundaries.

“And that’s what I ended up doing in my own career. I never saw myself as any one thing, and I never labeled my own self specifically or wrote music specifically for a genre. So it didn’t surprise me, or at least was a pleasant surprise, when my music ended up basically being a cross-genre thing. And I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been a big part of the fun for me. Just kind of being myself, and it lands wherever other people decide it should land.

“But I do like the whole moving target of that and just being myself. So I’ve enjoyed watching it all evolve and seeing everybody enjoy these boundaries being pushed and changed and even dissolved, in a lot of cases.”

How do you feel that you have evolved, personally, over the last 11 years and how will that affect the spirit of this tour?

“Well, I’m having a lot more fun now. I’m going to have a lot of fun with this tour. The most fun I’ve ever had on stage. I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit. I’m in a reunion spirit to get back together with the fans again after all these years. You know, it will be emotional for me. The show will be very exciting; there’s a lot of dynamics in the show – I’m putting my best foot forward in every way, you know, technologically, psychologically. Just throwing myself into it.

“And, yeah, it’s a bit of a bittersweet experience, and, you know, I’m almost afraid to start it, ‘cause once it starts it’s going to go by very quickly, then all of a sudden it will be done.”

You’re just coming off the Las Vegas residency, and I’m just wondering if that long stay in one place has impacted the way that you approach touring and your shows and that kind of thing.

“Well it’s certainly the reason I decided to go out on the tour – ‘cause during the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I missed being out on the touring stage and missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me.

“So I was thinking, ‘Gee, it would be fun to go and visit people in their own hometowns and experience that excitement and atmosphere again. So I enjoyed Vegas very much for a lot of reasons, but it did motivate me – it was a motivation to one more time experience one more time going out into the arena setting and being with people in their hometowns.”

You talked about what the set list might include, and I was wondering what the progress is on a new album, whether there’s going to be any new music on the set list.

“There won’t be any new music from the new album on the set list – at least at this point. Maybe closer to the end of the tour I will be able to pull some of that music in. I don’t want to pull it in too soon, ‘cause it’s very difficult to know when the new album’s going to be ready. I don’t want to bore people with songs they don’t know, either. I know myself, when I go to a concert, I want to hear the songs that I know, that I’m familiar with and that I already have memories to and so on.

“So I think if it’s close enough to when I’m about to release something, I think it would be fair, then, to play one or two new songs off the new album. I’m dying to do it; I would love to be able to do it [Laughs]. But I just feel that it would be … I don’t think I would want that myself if I was going to see my favorite artist and I wanted to go hear their hit songs. So I’m just sort of looking at it that way. But like I said, if the album progresses quickly enough and the timing works out, then I might very well just put one or two songs in closer to the end of the tour.”

Is part of the reason for doing the tour at this point simply that the major changes in the way recorded music is sold over the last 10 years have kind of dictated that it’s more important for, or more necessary for artists to perform live than to release records?

“Um, are you saying, is that why I’m going out on tour?”

Yeah, or is the fact that you’ve had 10 years when you didn’t have records out – was it partly motivated by the fact that the change to digital sales meant that it was just harder for musicians to do recorded music anymore?

“Oh, I see what you’re saying. Well, I mean, at this point for me it doesn’t really apply, ‘cause I don’t have new music yet [laughs]. So the music that I’m going out with is the music that’s always existed. It’s the classic stuff that everybody know and that’s what this tour’s all about – bringing the hits to everybody. Bringing the hits to their hometowns and out on tour.

“So I think, especially if you’re a new artist, it would be very difficult to not tour live. I understand what you’re saying because record sales have been dramatically affected by just the climate of the whole market and how it operates. And touring just becomes more important.

“But for me, this tour is about reuniting with the fans – I haven’t done it in a long time. I am just bring the music that I’ve already sold records for, so it doesn’t apply in that sense what you’re saying there. But I do hope, in talking about new music, that maybe near the end of the tour I’ll be able to introduce a couple of new songs from the new album that’s coming out.

“But it’s so hard to know when that’s going to be ready that it’s hard to say whether I’ll be able to do that or not. But this tour is really all about the classics, and the tour – the reason for the tour is just, you know, to say goodbye to the stage, um, on a high. And just with my friends – with my fans.”

What did you learn from your time in Las Vegas that you’re planning on taking out on the tour with you. If there were favorite parts of what you did in Vegas that you’re eager to take to our hometown.

“Hmm. Well, I mean, there were a lot of things to learn in Vegas, that’s for sure. I think what I learned there is the audiences there were very close to the stage. So it was one of the luxuries that I enjoyed, because I love to see the people close up; I like to touch the people and mingle with them. So it was really cool to do so much of that there – having them so close to the stage, and such a controlled room. It was a theater environment.

“And what I learned is I have to do more of this – I want to do more of this. And I want to make sure that when I go out on the road and we do this tour, that I don’t miss out on that. I have to make sure that I’m able to get out there in the audience and touch people and look at them in the eye and be among them. So there’s a plan for that [laughs].

“It was a good experience being able to be so close with the people in Las Vegas. It really did – it’s something that I’m going to take with me on the tour, even though it won’t be as easy to do because of the scales of the rooms and so on. But we’re going to do it. So that’s been part of the plan and been built in to the production for me to be able to do that.”

What’s it like for you on tour these days? Do you get out and sightsee in any of the cities?

“This tour will be a little bit more focused on making my new record. So on my days and time when I’m not on stage or traveling, I will be recording vocals or working on the songwriting and so on. So I’m not going to be able to get out much and do any sightseeing on this tour. I’m going to be pretty much working between the stage and the new album.

“I have a very little portable setup and I just sing and record my vocals. That’s how I do my songwriting now and how I do my demos. And you can be electronically connected with your producer wherever they are. And the producers will come out to me as well, when I’m touring and we’ll just poke away at it like that – work on the arrangements, work on the vocals and then they can send me sessions and I can Skype. There’s just various ways to do this now that are pretty efficient, pretty effective.”

In relation to the fact that this is your last tour: I was wondering if there was anything you had planned to do, maybe new or different, in terms of the stage show that maybe differs from the previous tours that you’ve done. So you can really assure that you go out on a bang with this one?

“[Laughs] Well, you know, the tour’s call Rock This Country, and it’s just a celebration tour for a lot of reasons. I’m reuniting with the fans out in their own hometowns, that I have not done in a decade. It is a goodbye to the stage, and so the show is just full of great technology, the highest-end possible. It’s a very dynamic show – more dynamic than ever before, and no one has ever seen me in this light ever before. It’s going to be a whole new fresh look – a whole new fresh production entirely different from Las Vegas. We’ve stripped everything down and started from scratch.

“So it will be something that no one’s ever seen before of me. And I think it’ll be memorable. It’s gonna rock, that’s for sure. And it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m in a good spirit for it, and just primed to visit the fans’ hometowns and come to them. ‘cause for the last two years in Las Vegas, the fans have been coming to me. So I really feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show.

“And I guess this big sign-off, this big farewell.”

What have you missed most not being out on tour, and are there any parts that you’re not as excited about?

“Well what I’ve missed the most is the connection with the fans. I’ve evolved a lot over the years. My life has changed so dramatically and my point of view has changed in a lot of ways. The way I see my role on stage and what I mean to the fans and what they mean to me. All of that is more valuable, and there’s just another level of maturity that I have now. And gratitude. So I’m looking forward to just exchanging that and experiencing that with them. And just saying thank you and celebrating my farewell with them.

“And then what I’m not looking forward to – well, I mean there’s nothing, really. The timing of this tour – there’s a sort of inconvenience to the timing of the new music and the tour because I want to get the new music finished and I want to be able to tour with some of the new music. But the tour isn’t going to leave me any time to do that.

“So I’m going to try to squeeze in working on the album while I’m on the tour. So there’s going to be a little bit of tug-of-war for my time and getting this new music together and finished. So that is the biggest struggle, really. I’m anxious to do both, and I’m going to have to manage my time and I’m not going to be able to have it all – which will be a little frustration, ‘cause I’m a little anxious about the new record.

“So that’s really it. But there’s nothing I’m not looking forward to.”

You talked about your desire to write new music and record more albums. So why haven’t you written music or recorded albums in the past dozen years? And for that matter, why haven’t you toured?

“Right. Well, I’ve been writing for ... I never stopped writing. So I’ve been writing all the time. You know, it’s a creative outlet that I would do whether I was touring or not or recording or not. So that never stopped.

“Why I didn’t record anything is primarily because my voice just wasn’t there and I didn’t have – I wasn’t sure I was ever going to sing again. So I was writing the music, but I didn’t know what to do with it. And then the same thing goes for touring. I mean, touring even more so, for the vocal side of it because you’ve just got to get out there and you have to be able to deliver your thing and stuff.

“Initially why I had slowed down after the last tour, though, was more so just for the break and to be a mom. And those few years after the last tour were very deliberately to concentrate on my son and my home because at the end of that tour, my son was just starting school for the first time. So that was logical timing for me.

“And then that period, that shorter sabbatical, turned into rather a long one, and then the problems started compounding with the voice and so on and so forth, and that ended up being over a decade.”

Can you give us any idea what the new songs are like?

“Stylistically it’s hard for me to explain it. It’s different from what I’ve done in the past stylistically. I think the songs and the spirit of the songs are still very relatable. They’re communicative –I don’t think that they’re obscure or anything like that. But I think it’s going to be a lot of unexpected elements to the music, for sure. ‘Cause I’m writing it all myself, so there’s not influence from outside, and there’s no other writer or no producer directing it.

“And this is just naturally going to give it different spirit to the music. And of course I’m matured, I’ve evolved. I have a lot a more … I have different things to say. I have different things to express that weren’t true about me 10, 15, 20 years ago. So that I think is just a natural evolution. I don’t think that is going to surprise anybody.

“But stylistically, yeah, there’s a different direction behind the music, for sure. And I’m not terribly objective about it. So it’s hard for me to know really where it fits and how I would be able to describe it, for the sake of others really grasping it. So I’m not even going to try doing that.

“But I’m enjoying it and It’s a very personalized songwriting. It’s been just a very therapeutic process for me. I’m pouring my heart out in the music – whether it’s literally in the lyrics or just emotionally through the melody and the chord progressions and all of that. It’s been a really great experience, and I want to do more of it. I’ve indulged in it and really don’t want to stop. I want to just keep going.

“I could just do that. [Laughs]. I mean, I could write music and be very satisfied, and I’m learning that about myself to be honest. I’m feeling less extrovert about expressing – the need to express my music –and more content just creating it.”

Compare the sense of fulfillment you get out of performing verses what you want to do more of – the deep sense of fulfillment you get out of songwriting.

“Well, the fulfillment I get out of performing is just being with the fans. Being with the public, seeing their reaction, getting their reaction. Me giving my reaction to them. It’s the interaction, it’s not the performing itself why I do it. I don’t need to be in the spotlight. It’s never been a desire of mine to be in the spotlight. I enjoy the interaction that that platform brings me. If that makes sense; it’s hard to explain really. But the gift of being on the stage for me is the fact that I can communicate with all these people over something we both love so much.

“But the songwriting part of it is by far the bigger pleasure than perfuming it. I wouldn’t say that it’s a bigger pleasure over, you know, his cool relationship I can have with the public. ‘Cause that is, you know, is just so unique and great and inspiring.

“But the songwriting – I could just do songwriting, and I would be happy, I would be fulfilled. It’s fulfilling in so many ways. I’m a creative person, and being a performer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re creative. I couldn’t just be a performer. I need to be a creative person. That’s really where my heart is. And I could be the creator of things and other people could be the performers of my creations and I would be fulfilled.

“I don’t need to be the one performing what I create, in other words. And you know, I could be talking to thousands of people and not performing at all and still get the same thrill of being with the people. So you know, it’s not a matter of performing. It’s just being able to communicate with all these people and to relate to them. So that could be in any form. It doesn’t have to be in the form of being the live stage singer. I mean, Oprah probably gets a great thrill out of doing what she does and communicating with the public. Or even writing books – being able to communicate with people through books and writing books and writing stories. There are just so many ways to do it.

“I just like the connection with the masses, I guess is what I’m saying. And it’s not necessarily being the singer that gives me that. The stage gives me that. It’s hard to break it down. I hope I’m not sounding confusing, but it’s the best way I can sort of describe it.”

You’ve mentioned the years of not recording and not touring and mentioned a lot of it due to your voice, and I’ve certainly read a little bit about what you were kind of going through it. But I’d like you to talk just a little bit about that experience, ‘cause it really does sound like it had to be pretty traumatic to see your voice going to the point where I think you were even having problems just with your speaking voice. I’m curious how just going through that was, and just how much you feared you wouldn’t be able to get back to singing.

“It was very, very scary and it went way beyond not being able to perform. It went beyond concerns for my career or not having a career. As a singer, it was a part of me that I was losing – like losing a hand or something, I was going through a grieving process. I really thought that I lost my voice – the voice that I knew and the voice that I once had.

“It was just very scary and it was something I just was having a terrible time coming to terms with, And before I gave up on it completely, luckily I found the courage to tackle it and take it on. But the period that I believed that I would never sing again was incredible depressing, it was a grief, is the best way I can explain it. I was really grieving the loss of the voice that I knew and that I had – that I once had.”

You turned 50 last month. How did you approach that, and does part of you feel like your representing or helping define what the age of 50 is?

“[Laughs heartily] I’m trying to figure out what that is myself. I suppose I’ll have more answers, but I probably should have some idea already. I think anybody in the second half of their 40s is already considering what it’s going to mean to be 50. And, you know, for me I think it’s an inspiration and a motivator to be my best because I sort of feel like if I don’t push myself and bring myself to the best that I can be now, it’s only going to get harder after that.

“So I’m saying to myself, ‘OK, at this point in your life you’ve got to be the fittest you can be. You’ve got to be the best you can be, the sharpest you can be. You’ve got to be the most educated you can be, the happiest you can be. And then I just feel that it sets a positive, strong platform for myself to jump from. And it sets the tone for the rest of my life, is how I see it.”

If you put this record out and people love it – which they probably will – and they’re going to want to hear it live and you might want to play it live. So do you feel like maybe you’re boxing yourself in a little bit by saying this is your last tour? When you’re till petty young?

“It’s such a good question, and I’ve gone through it in my mind so many times. But when I decided to do the tour – the timing of the tour was decided on not leaving too much of a gap from when my residency finished in December. I didn’t want to shut everything down and then start all over from scratch again, you know, a year down the road or two years down the road.

“But at the same time, I was hoping that my album would be further along by the time I finished my residency in December in Vegas. So the timing was just not ideal, it didn’t work out as I planned. But I can’t rush the album and get it out just for the sake of the tour. So it was just one of those things where the timing didn’t work out very well.

“What I will do, though, is at the end of this tour, if the music is far enough along with the album that I’m able to introduce one or two songs live, then I’ll be able to do that. And I’m hoping that I can do that. But I just had to let go of the fact that the timing wasn’t ideal. You know, with tours and albums, you’ve got to plan way far in advance and it just doesn’t always work out the way that you want it. You know, some things get delayed, and there’s no guarantee that things will ever line up. So that’s kind of what happened.

“So I didn’t intentionally box myself in, but it’s sort of the way it played out.

“And yeah, it would bum me out to not be able to do those new songs live, but I also believe that records have their own life as well. They’re an entity in their own way, and yeah, I just have to cross each bridge as I get there. But I’m kind of disappointed that the timing didn’t work out. But I’m optimistic that there’ll be something before the end of this tour that I will be able to do a couple of highlights from it.”

Do you think it’s possible that you’ll enjoy this tour so much and the new album will do well, is it possible you’ll change your mind and come back out of retirement from touring. I know some artists are real adamant about it, and others, they leave the door a little bit open.

“I think it just depends on where you are – what your frame of mind is. And it is so individual. But my frame of mind is I want to move on to different things, and I need time to do it. I want to make more albums and I want to write more music. I don’t know about other songwriters, but it takes a lot of focus to write meaningful songs and it takes a lot of emotional energy and it’s time consuming. So if I’m distracted all the time by, you know, creating productions and all of the facets of the tour and then the touring itself, you know, how much music am I ever really going to be able to write? And how many records am I going to be able to make?

“So I guess my focus is switched. My focus has already been switched. And I’m going to a record-making mode when this tour is over, and that’s what I want to do. I want to do more of that. I want to bring more music out. And I’ve got a lot more to say, a lot more to sing and that’s been what’s behind this decision. I can’t do them both at the same time. “

SHANIA TWAIN, 7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 2, PPL Center, 701 Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets: $47-$133. www.PPLCenter.com, 610-347-TIXX

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/lehigh-valley-music/mc-interviewing-shania-twain-on-last-tour-coming-to-allentowns-ppl-center-singer-wants-to-prove-shes-st-20150925-column.html

Tommy wrote:

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Interviewing Shania Twain: On last tour, coming to Allentown's PPL Center, singer wants to prove she's 'Still The One'

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/lehigh-valley-music/mc-interviewing-shania-twain-on-last-tour-coming-to-allentowns-ppl-center-singer-wants-to-prove-shes-st-20150925-column.html

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 Seems like I've read it before but in a shortned version.

Shania Twain has her future mapped out

By Lynn Saxberg | The Regina Leader-Post | October 15, 2015

When Shania Twain appears on the stage at the Brandt Centre on Sunday night, she will be at the centre of an elaborate spectacle involving multiple costume changes, a seven-piece band, dazzling lighting and pyrotechnics, and even a flying saddle. Thousands of fans will cheer wildly and sing along to hits like Man! I Feel Like a Woman, That Don’t Impress Me Much and Any Man of Mine.

The fans won’t be the only ones having a blast. Twain says she’s having “great fun” on her Rock This Country excursion, her first concert tour in more than a decade, although she’s still calling it her final tour.

Part of the reason is that it’s such an ambitious production it would be difficult to repeat, Twain explained in a recent interview. Adding extra dates to the current tour is a possibility, but mounting another big adventure sometime in the future?

Not likely.

“I could see myself carrying this tour on longer,” said the 50-year-old pop-country superstar. “It might be hard to stop it, that’s for sure. But I just don’t see myself starting over again with it. To do this from the ground up, it’s just not where I see my future.”

Instead, Twain wants to focus on her songwriting. So far, she has two albums’ worth of new material ready to take into the studio, but not yet ready for the stage.

“I want to make more records, and the songwriting is a very important part to me,” she says. “I don’t think I can do both at the same time. I can only wear one hat at a time.

“It’s very distracting being on the road and the things that come with that. All the songwriting that I did for this album is done. I did it beforehand, and it’s just become very clear to me that when I’m performing, I’m not writing and when I’m not performing, I’m writing. I’m in a different zone. The performing artist is a different person than the writer. That’s a whole other part of my brain that just can’t have all that distraction. I have to isolate myself to make that happen.”

The only glitch in the tour of late is a nasty respiratory infection that resulted in Twain cancelling shows in Manchester, N.H., on Oct. 6 and Albany, N.Y., on Oct. 7. She returned to the stage on Oct. 11 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre and appears ready for her shows on Sunday and Monday at the Brandt Centre.

With more than 75 million albums sold — including studio, compilation and live albums — the pride of Timmins, Ont., is considered the biggest-selling country female in history, and an artist who’s had an influence on a generation of younger stars, especially Taylor Swift. But she hasn’t released a new album since 2002’s Up!

No wonder there’s pressure to come up with new material. All eyes are on Twain to see if she can craft the hits without the help of her ex-husband, super-producer Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange, who was instrumental in co-writing, producing and shaping the multimillion-selling sound of her top three records, starting with 1995’s The Woman In Me.

(In one of music’s most complicated soap operas, he left Twain for her best friend about seven years ago, and then Twain later married the ex-friend’s ex-husband. Lange and Twain have a 13-year-old son who spends time with both parents.)

But the Canadian Music Hall of Famer is quick to point out that she’s done plenty of songwriting on her own.

“I wrote my whole life,” she says. “I’ve always written by myself, since I was a kid. Mutt was my first co-writing project. But as a recording artist, this will be my first independent writing project.”

As for new directions, the songs that are already written are some of the most personal she’s ever tackled.

“I think vocally it will be very identifiable,” she says. “I don’t think I’m that different there. Anybody who’s heard it so far says it’s very haunting, inspiring. It’ll be more soulful than anything I’ve ever done.”

Twain was initially hoping to release new music in time for the tour, but didn’t get it done during her two-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which ended late last year. Then she opted to let the momentum of the Vegas show propel her into the tour.

“The hope was to get the album done sooner,” she says. “I really thought by the time I was in my second year, I would already have new music to play, and that didn’t happen. It’s just really hard to do both at the same time, but I decided to do the tour because the team was already together. I thought, ‘Oh, brother, if I shut it down now, I really don’t think it’s ever going to happen,’ so I’m glad I kept everybody together and we did get this tour together. But the new music didn’t happen so this is where the timing didn’t work out very well for me.”

When the tour was announced in the spring, Twain was hinting she’d have new tunes out by her 50th birthday on Aug. 29. She’s now extended that deadline: “I’d love to at least get the first single out by then.” If the rest of the album emerges before she turns 51, she’ll be happy.

The half-century mark feels like a milestone for Twain, at least partly because her mother and stepfather died in a car accident in Northern Ontario before they reached the same age. Fit and healthy, Twain says she’s probably more active now than she was 10 years ago.

“I don’t feel any age, to be honest,” she says, agreeing with the notion that 50 is the new 30.

Still, one thing that’s been widely discussed is Twain’s newly blond hair. Evidence of a mid-life crisis? Nope.

“I don’t mind playing around with colour a little bit,” she says. “In Vegas, my hair was quite red. I’ve got two blond sisters and I was always the only brunette, and my own son is blond so I figured ‘Hey, it’s in my genes, I’m going to play with it and have some fun with it.’ It’s just a fun thing to do.”

Whether blond, brunette or redhead, Twain will have her work cut out for her in cracking the male-dominated landscape of the modern country scene where bro-country is all the rage.

“I think it’s a phase,” she says. “I think music goes through those phases, all genres do. I think it’s just that time for country right now.”

Given the cyclical nature of the music business, things might work out in her favour in the end anyway.

“It could be great timing for me.”

Maybe it’s time to make way for women again.

“Maybe you’ll see me in a coffee house somewhere doing my new music.”

Shania Twain

Oct. 18 & 19

Brandt Centre

http://www.leaderpost.com/shania+twain+future+mapped/11438295/story.html