Twain still down-home for 'Up!' tour

By SONIA MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/24/04


So this is where all the country fans went.

The last time Shania Twain took her show on the road, she was promoting her now 7-year-old multimillion-seller "Come on Over," and the world was a great place for a country music artist with an almost greasy-to-the-touch pop varnish. Garth, Faith — shoot, country was in every way cool.

But as the beloved Canadian import performed on the second night of the U.S. leg of her "Up!" tour, artists of her origins were nowhere in sight, at least not in the upper regions of the pop music charts.

Even over on the country list things are looking a bit staid and dusty, with three albums in the Top 10 that have been released a combined 261 weeks. Holding down the No. 11 spot, however, after a remarkable 74 weeks in stores, is the highest-ranking solo female act: Shania Twain.

And Friday night in Philips Arena, it was quite evident why she endures. Twain has the whole work-the-crowd thing down pat, even if pacing is something she could greatly benefit from.

The singer's in-the-round stage setup in the center of Philips was ideal for an arena, giving the all-ages crowd a direct view with screens overhead to amplify the experience even more.

Most of Twain's four-album, 11-year-old catalog surges with as much '80s guitar rock as burgeoning Brit-rock phenomenon the Darkness. It revved up the near-capacity audience but, at the same time, often overpowered Twain's standard-issue vocals.

Not that there weren't flourishes of country in opening cheer "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," "Honey, I'm Home" or "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" — but it was provided mostly by the somewhat surferlike three fiddlers in Twain's nine-piece band.

But you know what? On second thought, there isn't much that's as down-home and welcoming as allowing your audience to run up and circle the stage so you can high-five them, sign your $15 poster books and take their "Jesus Loves You" signs as you walk around and sing. Every two or three or songs.

That is, when Twain wasn't graciously stopping to thank people for contributing to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Then stopping to take a picture with two girls who'd won a raffle of sorts, and a few minutes onstage.

Then stopping to share a horse bite she had suffered the day before in our fair city.

As endearing as all that obviously was, what really works for Twain are her still very pop-savvy hooks. No matter how a tune started off, be it with a slight Caribbean sway, a bit of disco bombast or in the fine, easygoing fashion of the endearing ballad "You're Still the One," by the time the often similarly arranged songs hit the chorus, it was clear, often cheerlike ("Don't Be Stupid," "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!") and usually fun.

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