Shania Twain was in Vancouver to promote her new Mercury Records CD, "The Woman In Me", in early February, 1995.

Shania (Shu-Nye-uh) is an Ojibway name for "I'm On My Way". She is a Canadian country singer/songwriter signed to Mercury, Nashville. Shania has been singing country music publicly since the age of eight, when her father (an Objiway Indian) and mother began showcasing her at community events.

Despite the tragic death of both of her parents when Shania was only 21, she has survived that loss, and after a few years devoted to caring for and raising her kid sisters and brothers, has launched a successful international career as a recording artist.

"The Woman In Me" is her second Mercury release.

This new CD captures the fairy tale quality of her meeting and falling in love with Mutt Lange, renowned producer of albums for bands like Def Leopard and major artists like Brian Adams and Michael Bolton. Now married, Twain and Lange, co-wrote most of these tunes and the intense communication of their relationship is evident in the music.

WCMR: Your story reads like the ultimate Cinderella story, the ultimate country music scenario, now that you've met the love of your life, your dream producer and co-writer, and gotten married... Especially, since your new CD seems to be one of the best releases to come out in a while...

SHANIA: It is a Cinderella story. Not rags to riches, I'm not rich, yet. But certainly rags to something...

WCMR: The unfortunate death of your parents is a visible focus to the story, a tragedy which you have survived, and one which fans can see as an event which forced you to grow up quickly and assume responsibility at a very young age.

SHANIA: If you put it that way, it sort of makes sense, how I was able to cope with it at that time. The reason was, I think, was because my parents, in developing a career for me when I was so young, that actually made me grow up very quickly as well. My childhood career matured me and, in a sense prepared me in a way for what was coming.

WCMR: When you were only eight years old you were singing... Did they have to stand you up on a chair so the audience could see you?

SHANIA: The guitar was bigger than me. I wish they would have made those half-width size guitars when I was eight... nine... ten... eleven and twelve. I was so small that they couldn't lie flat on me. They were sticking out (like that) because I couldn't get my arm around them.

I've been doing it for a very, very long time. I'm twenty-nine years old now, and it has been twenty-one years that I've been singing professionally.

I remember Gary Buck and Dallas Harms. I used to be on shows as the opener for Anita Perras when I was just a kid and she was a teenager. I opened for people like Carrol Baker. Ronnie Prophet was one. Mary Bailey, my manager, was an entertainer when I was a child.

WCMR: Who were the radio people that got you excited in those days?

SHANIA: I listened to all kinds of music, we had a multi-format station happening in our home town. I heard 'everything' through radio, but at home it was always country. And I only sang country music as a child. I had other influences. I was really enamoured with the Carpenters, their harmonies... were so beautiful... I learned so much, at a very young age from groups like that. Her voice is just like silk, it is so gorgeous!

There were many influences along the way. I think Dolly Parton is the one from the beginning right up until now, that has been the 'one'. Dolly has done everything. She's an exceptional writer. She's an actor. She's a great personality. She's everything.

WCMR: I like Dolly too. And one of the reasons I like her is her versatility. She's equally effective doing a simple acoustic bluegrass tune (like on the Trio album) as she is in the larger country pop productions like Islands In The Stream.

There's some splendid acoustic stuff on your new CD.

SHANIA: I'm very comfortable with that. I'm not a great guitar player. I never spent very much time perfecting my skills on guitar... I'm a singer/songwriter. I use my guitar as an instrument to write. But I never performed without my guitar until I was at least sixteen. And when I first put it down, it was so awkward without it.

I think any singer/songwriter is comfortable doing an acoustic- type thing. They are used to just sitting and singing with the guitar. It is one of my favourite things to do.

WCMR: Let's talk about the album itself. Your husband, and co- writer, and producer, has not come up with basically a pop album here. It is very country!

SHANIA: Yes! A lot of people are pleasantly surprised. Maybe were even expecting it to be 'over-produced'... or too rock... I think what he has done, through this CD, is created a new standard for country music.

What people don't realize is, of course--yes, as far as Def Leopard is concerned he is a major contributor to that success, of course, yes! But to go from Def Leopard to Billy Ocean (he did the Caribbean Queen album and that was a huge success) ...to go from Def Leopard to Billy Ocean to Michael Bolton... they are worlds apart...

WCMR: You are saying that he brings out the best in everyone he deals with?

SHANIA: He enhances the artist's music. A lot of the success of this album has to do with the writing and what he has done with the sound of it. Right from the beginning he said, "We need to go into your catalogue. I want to know what write, what you've been writing, then we'll go from there. You be the basis to the creativity of this album, because it needs to be you not me..." And, so that's what we did.

Ten out of the twelve songs on this album are songs that I was writing before I even met Mutt. It feels very good. Like Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?

WCMR: The sounds on the album are pretty darn tasty. I like the bursts of cajun fiddle.

SHANIA: I lot of the album has a bit of cajun flavour, cajun fiddle. I think the whole idea behind the fiddle on this CD is we wanted fiddle that really 'dug in', and was really aggressive, not just the fiddle as a background instrument.

WCMR: My favourite song is the second to last cut, No One Needs To Know.

SHANIA: (snapping her fingers and singing) ..."Am I dreamin' or stupid / I think I've been hit by Cupid / But no one needs to know right now"...

WCMR: Many country albums only have ten cuts, you've given us twelve. (thanks for the extra music) The eleventh track is an up tempo acoustic gem and then the twelfth is the show-stopper, the a cappella rendition of the song which came to you in the months when you were healing from the loss of your parents... God Bless The Child.

SHANIA: That was more of a... Mutt didn't want to do anything to that one. It is good the way it is, it is not really a complete song. What it is, is a musical thought, an expression. At the time, when my parents died, what that lullaby did for me was to comfort me. It soothed me. It was like a bellows of sorrow... I would go for long walks and just sing this.

WCMR: ...the healing process.

SHANIA: Yes. I think he really captured that on the CD without adding anything.

WCMR: Working with a producer who can get the right vocal out of you makes the difference between an average album and a killer one...

SHANIA: Yes. Mutt's always been great at that with everyone he's worked with. I think that the advantage that we have together is that we love each other.

Bach to interviews