Point is well taken Guest, and LH. Ms Twain is a real person, with a working-class background--anyone who grew up in the tree-planting business in North Ontario knows all about real work--and good family values.   (My own contacts in Timmins say not everyone there loves her, though. Like most ambitious people, she left some of her roots and people who got her started behind). When I first heard her, I was pre-disposed to like her precisely because of what I had heard about her background. And I did enjoy the music, at first.

But I am certain she has been a willing participant in her own marketing. She wouldn't have to do anything as rebellious and controversial as Sinead O'Connor did just to try putting out a lower-key unplugged kind of album that didn't rely on dumb outfits on video, and super-crunchy production. I just don't buy the victim-of-industry picture, any more than I do with Madonna.

And she is a decent, tolerable singer, but NOT a great one. Incidentally there is a Shania tribute act making the country fair and small-town arena circuit in Ontario, called Shania Twin. Unlike Diana Krall, what Shania does is eminently imitatable.   

I find myself feeling apologetic for being critical, but hey, that's the way I see it.
W-O