With the release of a brand new CD, country songstress Crystal Shawanda is taking her new slate of tunes on the road with a Red Deer stop next month.
Just Like You releases April 24, and Shawanda, who hails from Manitoulin Island in Ontario, can’t wait to unveil the new slate of tunes to fans across the country.
She plays Cowboys on May 3.
She grew up immersed in all styles of music, especially country.
Being the youngest of three siblings, music has always been a part of who she is. At 12, she accompanied her truck-driver father on a long haul to the southern U.S., and visited Nashville for the first time.
At 13, she recorded her first CD in Nashville, all of which were songs that she wrote. Over the next several years she recorded three more independent albums, traveled back and forth to Nashville, honed her craft, and finally got a full-time gig at the famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Nashville’s world famous Broadway.
There, she met her husband and lead guitarist, Dewayne Strobel, where they shared the stage for six years.
While working at Tootsie’s, Shawanda began to work with producer Scott Hendricks (Faith Hill, Brooks and Dunn) and it was then that Nashville music-business legend Joe Galante signed Crystal to RCA Records/Sony Music Nashville in 2007.
Her first single, You Can Let Go, was the fastest rising single in Canadian BDS history and reached the top five in Canada and top 20 in the U.S.
Her debut album Dawn of a New Day was released in 2008.
It was Billboard’s highest charting album by a Native American in history and sold over 400,000 copies.
A CMT six-part documentary also aired in Canada called Crystal: Living the Dream, giving fans an inside look at her life in Nashville.
In 2009, after five hit singles in Canada including the title track Try and My Roots are Showing and a massive tour with Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley, Shawanda was named the Canadian Country Music Association’s Female Artist of the Year, deservingly.
The year 2010 shaped up to be another amazing year for Shawanda, beginning with a cross-Canadian tour with Reba McEntire, and was honored to perform every night with the living legend for the duet Does He Love You.
Shawanda and her husband launched their record label New Sun Records, and released two lead singles off of her forthcoming album Beautiful Day and Fight For Me in Canada. She also performed for 55 million people on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
In the meantime, Shawanda has formed a team of country music’s best and will continue to soar, with the release of Just Like You and a new single Closer. Crystal will also be hitting the road in the U.S and Canada, and looks forward to spending time with her fans.
“I love to sing, whether there’s a crowd or not and that’s something that has always pulled me through.”
– Fawcett
