Crystal Shawanda Church House Blues

Crystal Shawanda
Church House Blues
True North Records

Crystal Shawanda is an indigenous musician who grew up on the Wikwemikong reserve on an island in Ontario, Canada. She grew up in a home filled with the blues, her brother's favorite music, while her parents encouraged her to play country songs. She moved to Nashville where she had some commercial success as a country act and had a top 20 hit on the country charts. However, her heart was in the blues. "The whole time I was singing Patsy Cline on stage, I was singing Etta James at home." After she left the major label, she formed her own record label to focus on the blues.

This is her fourth blues-oriented album. Among those backing her include Dave Roe on bass (Johnny Cash, Yola, Ceelo Green), the McCrary Sisters on backing vocals, Dana Robbins (Delbert McClinton's band) on sax, and Peter Keys (Lynyrd Skynyrd) on keyboards. This is not a traditional blues album in the sense that there are plenty of soul and rock flourishes in the music. This is heard when she belts out her vocals in the manner of blues-influenced rock of a Bonnie Bramlett and Tracy Nelson.

As she sings on the title track that opens this album, she went to the church house to get her Sunday morning right where she found them dancing like the roadhouse he played the last night. She immediately strikes one with the power of her gritty, rasping singing as she draws parallels between the church and the roadhouse. Her husband, Dewayne Strobel, plays a searing solo while Robbins adds raunchy sax fills. The band is stellar, and their backing complements her intense, brooding vocal on "Evil Memory," with more hot guitar. The power of this performance sticks with the listener after it is over.

Another choice tune is "When It Comes To Love." Here, she sings with tenderness about needing to hold on for love and doing what one has to do. "Hey Love" sounds like an updated song from the 1950s with nifty playing accompanying her. Then there is "Blame It On the Sugar" as she employs various sweet confections to display her attraction to a lover with its get down on the dance floor groove. Then there is a bluesy power ballad, "Bigger Than the Blues," about one working hard to find a smile. Performances like this one remind me of Allannah Myles of "Black Velvet" fame. The album closes with an intense, riveting cover of the Tragically Hips' song about Hurricane Katrina, "New Orleans Is Sinking."

It does not matter whether this is blues, blues-rock, or hard rock recording. Crystal Shawanda is a commanding singer who can go from a whisper to a shout and back. The excellent studio band helps raise or lower the musical temperature as appropriate. The result is this stunning recording.

I received my review copy from a publicist. here is "Church Street Blues" from this recording.