Shania Twain (CD - 1993)

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.

Personnel: Shania Twain (vocals); Billy Joe Walker (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Chris Leuzinger (acoustic guitar); Reggie Young , Steve Gibson (electric guitar); Sonny Garrish (steel guitar); Terry McMillan (harmonica, percussion); Jelly Roll Johnson (harmonica); Costo Davis (keyboards, synthesizer); David Briggs , Gary Prim (keyboards); Larrie Londin, Paul Leim (drums); Cindy Richardson Walker, Curtis Young, Dennis Wilson , John Wesley Ryles, Anthony Martin, Ronny Scaife (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Jim Cotton ; Joe Scaife.

Recording information: Music Mill Recording Studio, Nashville, TN.

Shania Twain's eponymous debut album is a set of contemporary country that demonstrates her considerable vocal abilities. Each song leans toward soft rock instead of country or country-rock and each relies on Twain's vocal skills. It's a promising debut, largely because it showcases her fine vocals, and is interesting within a historical context. ~ Thom Owens

Shania Twain's eponymous debut album is a bland set of contemporary country that demonstrates her considerable vocal abilities but none of the spark that informs her breakthrough, The Woman in Me. Part of the problem is that none of the songs are well constructed and each leans toward soft rock instead of country or country-rock. By and large, the songs lack strong melodies, so they have to rely on Twain's vocal skills, and although she is impressive, she is too showy to make any of these mediocre songs stick. It's a promising debut, largely because it showcases her fine vocal skills, but it isn't engaging enough to be truly interesting outside of a historical context. ~ Thom Owens

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. minimize