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JUNO Award-winning powerhouse Crystal Shawanda is back with her latest studio album, Sing Pretty Blues, out April 11 via New Sun Records. Crystal takes her fans on a sonic adventure, weaving together the rich fibres of blues and southern country soul, while paying homage to the legendary sounds of Stax, Chess and Motown.
The songs have a commonality of strength and self-discovery – exploring themes of resilience, self-worth and refusing to settle in love, life, and business. “It’s been three years since my last album, and so much has happened, so there’s a lot of
life in this music,” says Crystal. “The good,
the bad, the redemption and healing can be
messy, and life is not always pretty. That’s the
"Sing Pretty Blues.”
The album is the follow-up to 2022’s Midnight Blues, which earned Crystal a JUNO Award nomination in the Blues Album of the Year category, the 8th of her career. She became the first Indigenous woman to appear in the Top 10 of the American Billboard Blues chart upon the album’s release when it debuted at #8.
Produced by her husband and long-time collaborator Dewayne Strobel, Sing Pretty Blues is a thrilling mix of original songs – like the sassy standout “Stop Funking Me Around” and the sultry “Waiting For My Lover to Call” – alongside genre and era-spanning covers of Tom Petty’s “Honey Bee,” Son House’s “Preaching Blues” and Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” the latter recorded in tribute to a late fan and devoted friend.
“She grew up just down the road, back home on the Rez,” says Crystal. “She had a beautiful heart and just wanted to be loved, and people took advantage of that. Addiction is killing our communities, and her death triggered a lot of emotions about old friends who have passed and loved ones currently in active addiction. I needed to sing this song, to mourn, to grieve, because she mattered, and she was loved.”