There are times we are truly taken by surprise, and this is one of those times. Pulling a CD mailer out of the box, it was the latest release from Crystal Shawanda. Our first thought was, “Oh yeah, this is that Canadian country singer.” We were right, then again we were oh, so wrong. Voodoo Woman knocked us out of our blues lovin’ socks from the second we pushed play. It was a cathartic, holy shit, Jesus is back in Chicago moment. With a child’s giggle and some pre-show tuning up, “Wang Dang Doodle/Smokestack Lightning” kicked out of our speakers. Greasy slide guitar, Maxwell Street harmonica and the brute force of Shawanda’s vocals hit our ears like the Panama Limited sans brakes. Not only does Shawanda capture Koko Taylor‘s South Side growl, but after a brief slowdown for breath, morphs into a primal scream that would grab Janis Joplin by the short hairs. Where did this come from, we were asking ourselves. It seems that her first few country music albums, as great as they are, were hiding a blues soul. “The whole time I was singing Patsy Cline on stage, I was singing Etta James at home,” Shawanda admits. “The songs just fell out of me and it was like setting my voice free. I can’t help but feel like I’m home, no longer holding back.” Growing up on the Wikwemikong reserve on an island in Ontario, Canada, her parents raised her on country music and taught her to sing and play guitar, but it was her oldest brother who introduced her to the blues. He would hang out in the basement cranking Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Etta James. Thankfully for us, she paid attention.
