JUNO Award-winning powerhouse Crystal Shawanda returns with Sing Pretty Blues, the album that just earned her a 2026 JUNO Award nomination for Blues Album of the Year. The record takes listeners on a soulful journey through blues and southern country soul, paying homage to the classic sounds of Stax, Chess, and Motown. United by themes of resilience, self-worth, and independence, the songs reflect Shawanda’s refusal to settle in love, life, or business, delivering a powerful statement of strength and self-discovery.
We caught up with Crystal at her home in Nashville, Tennessse and asked how she felt about the current 2026 Juno Nomination for Blues Album of the Year.
“I was actually surprised! I really wasn’t expecting to be nominated at all so to be in the category of Blues Album of the Year is an incredible honour. I crossed over from Country to Blues in 2013-2014, so I truly feel blessed to be accepted by the Blues Community. No matter whether I win or not, I still appreciate being able to say Juno-nominated. I am proud to be there with all my respected peers.”
The winners will be revealed on stage in Hamilton, Ontario at The JUNO Awards Gala Presented by Music Canada on Saturday, March 28th, and The JUNO Awards Broadcast at TD Coliseum on Sunday, March 29th, live nationwide on CBC and CBC Gem and globally on CBC Music’s YouTube channel.
“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.”
Listen on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/cat-bird-504411565/sets/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.
“Snowflake (her spirit name) 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.”
Crystal went on to say, “The sad truth is that addictions in the Indigenous community is still so prevalent, and it is ravaging our communities. I personally have attended 10 funerals, and all were related to alcohol and/or suicides. I know in my heart if I didn’t have music in my life, I could have easily gone down that very same road. I’m so grateful that I am now at a point in my life where I am truly comfortable in my own skin.”
Sing Pretty Blues is preceded by the album’s heartfelt first single, “Would You Know Love,” which was released in January and blends Crystal’s signature raspy vocals with the raw emotion of blues and the storytelling soul of country.
“It sounds like it’s from somewhere in between, where old meets new, and the blues meets country, kind of like me,” she says. “It’s honest, vulnerable and soulful. When I sing it, I think about who wouldn’t be in my life, if I had let love slip on by. I think sometimes people walk away from love too easily when it gets tough, but that’s what makes it love. It endures.”
Born and raised in Wikwemikong First Nation, on Manitoulin Island, in Northern Ontario, Crystal was introduced to the blues by her eldest brother and to old-time country by her parents. “I was also into other styles of music that led me to the blues,” she says, citing everything from Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” written by Big Mama Thornton, to R&B-pop star Monica’s “Misty Blue,” by Dorothy Moore.
“I had a wonderful home atmosphere that always had so many different genres of music playing. My parents loved the classic country singers like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Tammy Wynette to name a few. They also loved rock ‘n’ roll as did my older brother but he was also an Ozzy Osbourne fan so I really had a wide range of music that influenced me as what would be a future songwriter.”
Crystal’s first foray as a professional singer was in country music, not blues. She was in her early 20s and had immediate success after signing a U.S. record deal with RCA Nashville. 2008’s Dawn of a New Day, featuring the single “You Can Let Go,” reached No. 1 on the Canadian Country Album chart and No. 16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums, the highest charting album by a full-blooded Canadian Indigenous country artist (in the SoundScan-era).
The following year she left the label and created her own, New Sun Records. Her first release was the holiday album I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Her next country album was 2010’s Just Like You, which won a 2013 JUNO Award for Best Aboriginal Album, before she made the change to the blues with 2014’s The Whole World’s Got The Blues. Two years later, in quick succession, came 2016’s Fish Out of Water and 2017’s Voodoo Woman, then recognition as a bonafide blues talent with 2020’s Church House Blues, which won the 2021 JUNO Award for Best Blues album.
Touching on the fact her husband Dewayne is her long-time partner in all of this journey, on state and off, Crystal shared some intimate feelings about being together all the time both on stage and off, “We both laugh about the fact that we can have just finished a heated argument, then having to go on stage and perform together. By the end of the set, and after performing our songs, we remember how we felt when we wrote them, and we are in love again. Now our little daughter (who started singing and doing cameos with us at 2 years old) is part of our performances. At eight years old, she does solo songs and agents are actually requesting her when we are doing our bookings. So, it really has become a family affair.”
With such a beautiful spirit, an indefatigable work ethic, and a deep love of family and music I asked Crystal what advice she would give to young artists just starting out.
“It sounds like such a cliché, but follow your heart, be true to your soul, and always, always be teachable.”
Strong words from a strong woman. For more on Crystal Shawanda check out these links:
https://www.youtube.com/@crystalshawanda2011