"From This Moment On"- Shania Twain

[Moshe]

The Shania Twain story is well known. Childhood spent in extreme poverty in a home where her step father abused Elaine's (Shania's) mother with extreme violence.
The death of Shania's mum & step dad in a car crash, & Shania's move to Nashville to pursue a career in music, her meeting with Mutt Lang, musical success, betrayal by hubby & best friend, divorce & so on.

Well, this book covers all that territory. To be honest, I really skimmed the book rather than read it. The domestic situation in the Twain household was truly appalling- poverty and violence. I have read enough about domestic violence & just skimmed this as I could do without it. I wanted to get to the part about Shania's musical career.
Well, I got there but was left feeling totally disengaged & uninterested. Shania appears so self-centred, it is as if no-one else really existed in Nashville.
She also has an irritating way of writing. Like, when talking about something that surprised her, she will write a sentence & then Whoa!!
I know the exclamation marks were a feature of her very effective 90's hits, but it does not work in prose.
The early bit about her encounters with Mutt & their musical collaboration are quite interesting. Shania feels uncomfortable referring to the hit albums she made with Mutt as "my" albums, but rather has them as "our" albums- they were very much a collaborative effort & she gives full credit to Mutt for the way he produced & moulded them to create their iconic sound.
I skimmed through most of the book & two thirds way through, I just lost interest completely. The writing style does not help, and Shania's apparent total disinterest in everything in Nashville that does not directly affect her helps create a sense of disengagement &, for this reader, a total lack of interest. I think the only singer she mentions meeting is Elton John, & this is to say that the first time they met he sang the chorus of her hit "You're Still The One" to her.
Some of the photos are nice. A couple of very nice ones of her and her son at Lake Geneva.
There are photos from across her career, but again, no other singer, apart from one with Elton John, makes any of the photographs.
Was shania's entire musical career in a total vacuum? Did she ever run into any other singers?

Maybe I am being unfair. I did not read most of the book & maybe someone else who read it all has a completely different impression. If so, please post it. As it is, I have lost nothing looking through this book- borrowed from the library- but I don't feel I have gained anything either!

[lo&m]

Was shania's entire musical career in a total vacuum? Did she ever run into any other singers?

I know that's a rhetorical question but probably not. Her business model did not require her to mix with other country acts. Most of whom were rather disparaging of her at the time. For instance, Steve Earle - of all people - called her, "The highest paid lap dancer in Nashville."

[Moshe]

Was shania's entire musical career in a total vacuum? Did she ever run into any other singers?

I know that's a rhetorical question but probably not. Her business model did not require her to mix with other country acts. Most of whom were rather disparaging of her at the time. For instance, Steve Earle - of all people - called her, "The highest paid lap dancer in Nashville."

Well, Earle was being a sexist prat. But some of the Nashville elite expressed very public support of her- especially reba McEntire & Dolly Parton.
Also, some careless editing in the book. For example we are told that Mutt Lang was "born in Rhodesia(now Zambia)".
No, no, no! Now Zimbabwe. Zambia was next door to Rhodesia & has been so named for centuries.

[foot-tapper]

Was shania's entire musical career in a total vacuum? Did she ever run into any other singers?

I know that's a rhetorical question but probably not. Her business model did not require her to mix with other country acts. Most of whom were rather disparaging of her at the time. For instance, Steve Earle - of all people - called her, "The highest paid lap dancer in Nashville."

Well, Earle was being a sexist prat. But some of the Nashville elite expressed very public support of her- especially reba McEntire & Dolly Parton.
Also, some careless editing in the book. For example we are told that Mutt Lang was "born in Rhodesia(now Zambia)".
No, no, no! Now Zimbabwe. Zambia was next door to Rhodesia & has been so named for centuries.

Wasn't Zambia formerly known as Northern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe as Southern Rhodesia????

[foot-tapper]

1964 Olympics

Zambia became the first country ever to change its name and flag between the opening and closing ceremonies of an Olympic Games. The country entered the 1964 Summer Olympics as Northern Rhodesia, and left in the closing ceremony as Zambia on 24 October, the day independence was formally declared.

[Moshe]

Aha! Foottapper, you may have hit on it. I forgot that. Northern Rhodesia became Zambia.