SHANIA TWAIN (LP) [Vinyl]

Personnel: Shania Twain (vocals); Billy Joe Walker (acoustic & electric guitars); Chris Leuzinger (acoustic guitar); Steve Gibson, Reggie Young (electric guitar); Allan Frank Estes, Mark Casstevens, John Willis (guitar); Sonny Garrish (steel guitar); Terry McMillan (harmonica, percussion); Jelly Roll Johnson (harmonica); Costo Davis (keyboards, synthesizer); David Briggs, Gary Prim (keyboards); Mike Brignardello, Glenn Worf (bass); Larrie Londin, Paul Leim (drums); Anthony Martin, Ronny Sciafe, John Wesley Ryles, Cindy Walker, Dennis Wilson, Curtis Young (background vocals).
Recorded at Music Mill Recording Studio, Nashville, Tennessee.
When Shania Twain's self-titled debut came out in 1993, it was impossible to predict the impact she would soon have, not only on country music but on the pop world as well. She hadn't yet hooked up with producer/hubby Mutt Lange, so there's less pop crossover material here than on her subsequent releases. Instead, mainstream country is the order of the day: romantic ballads colored by appropriately sorrowful-sounding steel guitar, and perky up-tempo numbers capable of inducing a line-dance at a moment's notice.
Twain's emergence as a bared-navel sex symbol was still in the future, so there's less of a focus on the randy, sensual material that would characterize albums like COME ON OVER. "God Ain't Gonna Getcha For That" explores the mores of the honky-tonk lifestyle, while "There Goes the Neighborhood" is a chronicle of the domestic carnage that occurs around the narrator. Many changes would occur in the years to come, but SHANIA TWAIN still sports the lovely yet brassy voice and carefully constructed tunes that the singer's fans have come to expect from their heroine.

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Pop