It looks like the 11th annual Stagecoach music festival will be the place to experience new Shania Twain music live.
According to California’s Orange County Register, her headlining set on April 29 will include a mix of new songs and her greatest hits. She said writing music for the new project was like therapy, since it marks her first time recording without her ex-husband and rock producer Robert “Mutt” Lange. She originally confirmed a new album on the red carpet at the 2016 CMT Artists of the Year ceremony where she was named an Artist of a Lifetime.
“This was an exercise in independence,” Twain said of her writing process. “I really just wanted to test myself and push my limits and face my fears. I haven’t worked alone in a really, really long time after all of those years of being partnered with Mutt professionally. It was a huge leap of courage for me to do this alone and I knew I was going to be carrying the weight of it alone, too. I just kept challenging myself and telling myself ‘OK, you’re going to write this album and we’ll find out what you’re made of these days.’
“It was tough at times,” she added. “Every single song was a nightmare because I was stressed about sharing it. It was a whole mix of feelings for me all the way around, but I’m so glad to be at the stage now where I’m ready to share it with the world. It’s a relief, actually.”
She did describe two new songs “Life’s About to Get Good” and “I’m Alright,” as “very celebratory and very happy.”
“I love the contrast in those songs and this album overall is honest and touches on a lot of candid phrases and wordings of things, but at the same time it still takes me to a place where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that’s actually where I’m at right now.”
Twain added that “Light of My Life” feels nostalgic and takes her back to being five years old, sitting in her parents’ living room listening to the Mamas & the Papas and the Beach Boys.
“I wanted to make sure I nurtured the authenticity and the acoustic elements in the album and I do basically 99.9 percent of all of the backing vocals and arranged all of them so they’re very organic and almost retro,” she said. “I wanted to be true to my influences and to myself and stylistically it just ended up being very diverse from one song to the next. The theme of this record is really artistic independence.”
Twain’s couch time on Tuesday’s (April 18) Late Late Show with James Corden was less new music and more about battling stage fright.
Seated with actress Whitney Cummings and model-actor Tyrese Bedford, Twain revealed she still gets the jitters every time she hits the stage. But she got her most embarrassing live moment out of the way long before her music dominated the country airwaves.
She recalled a performance in high school when she was so scared, she peed herself. Luckily, there was a glass of water at her feet and she kicked it over to keep the accident a secret.
