Mercury Finds
Longterm Success In Shania Twain
By It's not
the typical country music success story: struggling Canadian singer works one-nighters across Canada for years, finally nets
a U.S. record deal, chooses a rock producer (as a producer and husband), quits touring, and goes triple platinum with her
second album.
Not your everyday scenario, but then she is not your everyday artist. Shania Twain (her father, an Ojibway Indian, gave
her the tribal name 'shu-Nye-uh,' meaning 'I'm on my way') was born in Windsor, Ontario, and raised in the northern provincial
town of Timmins. Her parents were avid country fans and musicians who performed locally. By the time Twain was 8, they would
take her along to sing with them in clubs, on the radio, and in community centers.
When Twain was 21, her parents were killed in a car accident. Taking responsibility of her younger brothers
and sister, she took a job singing--show tunes, country, everything--at a local resort, bought a little house and truck, and
raised her siblings.
When they were grown, she says she wondered what to do with her new-found freedom. She put together a
demo tape, but was still hesitant to head for Nashville. Her friend and manager, Mary Bailey, called Nashville music lawyer
Dick Frank, who came to see her perform. Excited, he called Mercury producer Norro Wilson. Twain was quickly on her way.
After a so-so performance by her self-titled debut (although she was named CMT Europe's rising star of
the year), Twain got a call out of the blue from a new fan, Robert John 'Mutt' Lange. They began an intense phone relationship,
playing music for each other. She didn't know he was a famous producer, thinking he was a fan who was a gifted songwriter.
He went to meet Twain at the 1993 Fan Fair in Nashville. They fell in love at first sight.
And, musically, too, it seemed a perfect match. They wrote all of her next album, 'Any Man Of Mine,' and
the difference from the first album was immediately apparent. And you know the rest.
