Shania Twain - Up Close And Personal

Shania Twain's Up! Close and Personal concert is both a follow-up to her bestselling 2002 album and an intimate show featuring Alison Krauss and Union Station. It's hard to imagine two superstars in the same general style being as different as Twain and Krauss, and it's surreal to see the latter singing backup on "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," but the combination works. Up! featured both pop and country versions of its 19 songs, and while the intent here is to favor the country approach, the bluegrass sound of AKUS is more listenable than the album's twang and pedal steel, and "From This Moment On" could almost be mistaken for a Krauss song. It's still Twain's show all the way, though, as she sings lead for every song, including "I'm Gonna Getcha Good," "You're Still the One," and a cover of "You Shook Me All Night Long," which her husband Mutt Lange produced for AC/DC many moons ago. Dressed in relatively conservative black leather (!) and forgoing the aerobics, step dancers, and other pyrotechnics of older shows, Twain is personable and chatty with the audience that surrounds the stage (though no one is invited up), so much so that she can only get through 12 songs in the hourlong show. A 25-minute behind-the-scenes featurette helps fill out the disc. --David Horiuchi