Church House Blues
True North, 2020
8/10
A Canadian artist with a healthy set of pipes who knows her way around a blues tune, Crystal Shawanda is in fine company here as players from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnny Cash help her flesh out these powerful, blues oriented tracks.
The title track gets the album started off with rhythmic blues as Shawanda’s gritty yet melodic vocals guide the soulful setting, and “Evil Memory” follows with rich, expressive singing in the stripped back climate of timeless beauty where a piano adds much to the formula.
In the middle, “When It Comes To Love” offers a lush and emotive tune with vivid storytelling, while “Hey Love” flows with an upbeat approach of warm guitar work, crisp percussion and soaring vocals. “Bigger Than The Blues”, one of the album’s best, then resides close to gospel territory with incredible singing from Shawanda that few could replicate.
The album ends strong with “I Can’t Take It”, and “New Orleans Is Sinking”, where the former brings guitar solos to the passionate execution and the latter gets playful and rugged with a sophisticated instrumentation from the esteemed band..
Shawanda gained a bit of fame in 2007 when her country album charted and kept her on the road touring to promote it. However, knowing that her true love was the blues, she then left her record label to go out on her own in a different direction, and that risk has produced 4 excellent blues efforts that any and all fans of the genre would be wise to seek out.
Travels well with: Casey Hensley- Good As Gone; Heather Newman- Rise From The Flames