Written by Dave Clements

I think I made a pretty big mistake watching the Netflix documentary on Shania Twain and then watching her live in concert. I’ll try to explain.I thought the documentary was outstanding and told all sides of her story as a person and as a mega entertainer that had humble beginnings and some significant bumps in the road all the way to the superstar that she became – and how these bumps would certainly impact anyone in the entertainment business.

Obviously, there was a lot of her music and photos throughout the hour and a half program and each was very impressive and many iconic. I thought the film was shot recently yet for me there was a fairly significant disconnect between Shania of film and Shania on stage.

The Woodlands Pavilion show was Houston’s stop on her most recent Queen of Me tour. An outdoor venue, a Sunday night and possible unprecedented heat didn’t keep anyone from making a ticket purchase in the first thirty minutes that tickets went on sale over a year ago. It sold out that quickly and given Shania’s stardom as both a Country and Pop artist that was no surprise to this reviewer.
What was a surprise is that the person I photographed and watched didn’t look like the person on the TV show. She was very thin in a way that was almost concerning and also just didn’t have the same sound that, having just listened to many of her hit songs, I was expecting to hear.

Her music sounded good enough and she played many of her fans’ favorites. She played all that I anticipated she would from You’re Still the One, to Any Man of Mine, Whose Bed, Forever and for Always, That Don’t Impress Me Much and of course Man! I Feel Like a Woman.

Each song she did got the reaction that you would expect and likely had her feeling like she had given the audience what they came to see … leaving her fans feeling like they got their money’s worth.
Her thousands of fans in attendance, mainly women, grabbed up the twelve thousand plus tickets available and perhaps there was one guy for every 100 women in attendance this night.
Her audience seemed very receptive to her performance and I’m guessing most left feeling good about the evening and what Shania provided her legions of fans.

It’s important to note again that ‘game conditions’ were awful. It was hot, extremely humid, very little breeze and people EVERYWHERE.
And not that 57 is by any means old, her age had to impact her performance and I am guessing it is likely she is trying the best she knows how to keep ‘her look and sound’ as long as possible.
So for the record I didn’t think she looked bad; she just didn’t look like the Shania from the recent past nor sound as pure as I remembered.

Before closing this review I would like to mention that the opener Mickey Guyton did a nice job kicking the evening off. The Texas sun was beating down on her yet she sucked it up and gave a very credible and enthusiastic performance. It likely helped that she hails from the Great State of Texas.
Until next time please help keep live music alive every chance you have!