Seeing Shania Twain in Dallas? She'll tell you just what to expect

And scroll down to hear six of her iconic songs.

"I never saw myself as any one thing, never wrote music specifically for a genre."

That's 49-year-old superstar Shania Twain, talking about her record-breaking career during a recent media teleconference.

Spreading the word about the Rock This Country Tour — her first multicity trek in more than a decade, which stops at American Airlines Center on Monday — the Canadian artist fields question after question about her legacy and genre-defying musical style.

"It was a pleasant surprise when my music ended up being a cross-genre thing," she says.

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Was it ever. Twain's albums have sold nearly 90 million copies. You own and love at least one, or someone you know does, guaranteed. Twain, along with her super-producer ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange, put out feel-good hits to which most folks can relate at one point or another in life.

Taylor Swift gets credit in the current era for boldly leaving country behind for pop, but who in Nashville isn't doing that these days? Come to think of it, Swift's publicly proclaimed crossover move was downright clumsy compared with Twain's game-changing approach two decades earlier.

From "Any Man of Mine" to "Honey, I'm Home," the true pop-country queen blended multiple genres seamlessly and never apologized or attempted to explain her style. It just worked. For several years, she was the biggest thing going in any genre.

Even though the she caught some flack from traditionalists in the '90s for her crossover success, most of the classic stuff sounds down-home and twangy compared to today's country-radio hits.

As expected, though, the affable star has nothing disparaging to say about what's popular now.

"What falls into specific genres has changed and evolved. - It's a moving target," she tells one reporter who asks her opinion of the radio-ready blend coming from Nashville these days. "I enjoy that."

The most common query for Twain during the hour of grilling involves which hits she'll be performing in the new production. Will there be new music?

"I know when I go to a concert that I want to hear the songs I know, that I'm familiar with, that I have memories to."

So folks going to American Airlines Center will hear the greatest hits, in other words. They'll scoot around to "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" and hoot and holler to "Man! I Feel Like a Woman."

That said, she has been plugging away on a new album during the tour, and doesn't rule out doing something new live — if it's ready.

"What I'm working on now is different, but the songs and the spirit of the songs are still relatable.

"The biggest difference, I think, will be stylistically," she says. "I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, because right now it's just me and my guitar."

It would be nearly impossible and, frankly, unnecessary to reproduce what Twain did in the '90s. Aside from it being a different environment musically, she no longer works with Lange, who helped add the slickness to her sound. After their marriage ended with very public infidelity on his part, Twain took a years-long hiatus from music and at one point lost her will and physical ability to sing.

Before reclaiming her performing power during a wildly successful two-year stint in Vegas, the singer underwent intense physical and vocal therapy.

"It was tedious, repetitive, boring and painful," she says. "Similar to what an athlete would go through after an injury. You have to start from scratch and build the physiology back.

"Then there was a process of learning to live with the voice that was slightly different. Now, warming up for a show takes an hour and a half with the physical and vocal warmup combined."

Watch footage of Twain performing in Vegas or on earlier Rock This Country dates, though, and it's hard to pick up on many changes. She's every bit the vivacious, confident and warm-toned vocalist that she was in her chart-topping heyday. She's just a little blonder now, and according to the songstress, much wiser.

And, to the surprise of anyone who lives for the pop lioness in Shania, she's ready to call it quits on the arena-tour phase of her career after this trek ends.

"This is certainly not my retirement from music. I'll be doing music until the day I die," she says. "But I've been on stage since I was 8. I feel I've put in my fair share of performance.

"I want to write more, I want to make lots more records."

At this juncture in her life, "I could just write music and be very satisfied. I'm learning that about myself."

Whatever may might happen after the Rock This Country Tour concludes, Dallas fans will get one last chance on Monday to see one of music's biggest and brightest of all time.

That's what Twain wants for now, "to say goodbye to the stage on a high with my friends - my fans."

Six by Shania

"Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" — After a less-than-stellar showing on her debut album, she came roaring back with sophomore disc The Woman in Me, and this was its leadoff single. It's the prototype for the "Mutt" Lange-produced slick but twangy style. It's also her most honky-tonk appropriate tune, which is why I tend to go back to it the most out of all of the hits.

"Any Man of Mine" — This was the one that put Shania over the top. And who among us wouldn't want someone to show them a teasin', squeezin', pleasin' kind of time?

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman" — Although I was never a fan of the exclamation marks in the song titles (just a weird pet peeve, I guess), I did love the way she kicked it off with her "Let's go girls" line, leaving no doubt that this was the ladies-night anthem to beat all others. And it was notable how she flipped the script on that sexist Robert Palmer video concept, too.

"Honey, I'm Home" — Another half-twang anthem from the blockbuster Come On Over album, this one happily tosses aside long outdated gender stereotypes. It finds Shania expecting her dude to "rub my feet, give me something to eat" when she arrives home from a long day at the office.

"I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" —  Just a fun single with an undeniable chorus, although I didn't think three different mixes of the Up! album (pop, country and world) were all that necessary. It's not as though a little banjo is going to make anyone's ears bleed.

Bonus track

"Coat of Many Colors" — This is one of the best Twain recordings hands down, because even though it's a cover of a Dolly Parton song, it allows her to channel her hardscrabble past (raising her siblings with little money in the wake of her parents' death) with a beautifully soulful vocal.