Crystal Shawanda launches a new single with blues and country roots
NASHVILLE—It may be some time before Wiikwemkoong’s favourite songbird, Crystal Shawanda, gets to come home for a visit as she is currently setting out on a cross country tour, but Island fans can console themselves with a new single, ‘Would You Know Love,’ launched this past Friday.
“I am so excited,” said Ms. Shawanda when contacted by The Expositor at her home in Nashville. She describes the genre of this new release as being “somewhere between the old and new, country and blues, sort of Etta James and Patsy Cline.”
The new single is being released on her revamped New Sun Music label and was written by famed songwriter Sonny Tachett.
The new single was supposed to be released earlier this year but was delayed due to the loss of Ms. Shawanda’s longtime manager and agent Rob Pattee to cancer and another close friend to an overdose.
“I needed to take some time to heal,” she said. “The single was supposed to be released last spring, but I took some time off to mourn. It still hurts.”
Like for many people, this past year has been filled with loss and pain, but also a tremendous gratitude.
“Rob came into our lives when we needed him the most and we didn’t even know it at the time,” said Ms. Shawanda. “He believed in us, he was our friend, our family and our champion. If other people didn’t believe in us, he would make them, and when he couldn’t convince them, we thrived anyways. We reached many milestones together including winning Juno awards and countless shows which was our greatest accomplishment.”
In the meantime, Ms. Shawanda will be touring extensively over the next few months and has been kept very busy paying it forward my mentoring and supporting other artists in fulfilling their dreams with her record label.
‘Do You Know Love’ can be downloaded from any of the streaming services online, and she still sells CDs and records at her shows.
“I find a lot of country and blues fans like to be able to buy the records and take them home with them, so we still make them available,” she said.
