JUNO Award-winning powerhouse Crystal
Shawanda releases "Come Unto Me" today on all streaming platforms, a
heartfelt cover of The Mavericks classic and the first single from her
forthcoming album 'Homesick Indian Blues'. The recording carries deep
personal meaning for Shawanda, serving as a tribute to Raul Malo, the
Mavericks' famed frontman, whose early support helped launch her career.
The story reaches back to Shawanda's
earliest days in Nashville, when she and her band played for tips in the
back room upstairs at Tootsies on Broadway, a room reserved at the time
for acts the industry had given up on. Performing a mix of pre 1975
country, blues and rock and roll, Shawanda’s group built a devoted
following among the songwriters, artists and producers who came to
watch, Malo among them. "We never bothered Raul when he came in,"
Shawanda recalls. "We could see he was trying to lay low."
That changed the night of her RCA
Records showcase, when Shawanda looked up and saw Malo in the crowd. His
presence meant everything to a young artist who admired him precisely
because he never fit the country music mould. "That support, that
interest, it inspired me and encouraged me," she says, calling it one of
the breadcrumbs that told her to keep going. When The Mavericks
reunited years later with Eddie Perez joining the lineup, Shawanda and
her husband, producer and guitarist Dewayne Strobel, began dreaming of
one day collaborating with the band whose records had shaped them both.
That dream took on new urgency when
the couple began working up "Come Unto Me" just before Malo's passing in
December 2025. Strobel encouraged Shawanda to carry the song forward as
a tribute rather than set it aside, and invited Perez to be part of the
recording. Perez accepted, contributing electric and acoustic guitars
and backing vocals, and personally walked Shawanda through his parts on
the track. "I was like a little kid, so nervous and excited," she says
of the session, describing Perez sharing stories of his years alongside
Malo.
Malo himself once explained that the
song drew inspiration from the film King Kong, the idea that even a
giant can be rendered vulnerable by love. Shawanda has embraced that
same spirit in her version, delivering the material with the commanding,
full throated vocal power that has defined her blues catalogue for over
a decade, set against the Tex Mex textures of a Flamingo Pink
Stratocaster that Strobel acquired directly from Perez. "My husband and I
have lived these words," Shawanda says, "and I think that really shines
through in this track."
Born and raised in Wiikwemkoong First
Nation on Manitoulin Island, Shawanda signed with RCA Nashville in her
early twenties and released 'Dawn of a New Day' in 2008, the highest
charting album by a full blooded Canadian Indigenous country artist in
the SoundScan era. She became the first Indigenous woman to win the
Canadian Country Music Award for Female Artist of the Year in 2009,
before shifting fully into the blues, a run that has produced JUNO wins
for 'Church House Blues' and a Billboard Blues Chart Top 10 debut with
'Midnight Blues.' Her most recent album, 'Sing Pretty Blues,' topped the
Indigenous Music Countdown in 2025 and earned JUNO and Canadian Blues
Music Award nominations. In 2012, she founded New Sun Records, the first
female and Indigenous owned record label in Canada, which she continues
to run while mentoring emerging Indigenous artists.
Crystal Shawanda Tour Dates:
July 31 @ 10:00 AM, Wikwemikong Park Centre, Wikwemikong, ON
August 6 @ 7:00 PM, Red Arrow Brewing Company, Duncan, BC
August 8 @ 6:30 PM, Maffeo Sutton Park, Nanaimo, BC
August 15 @ 6:00 PM, Berczy Park, Toronto, ON
August 29 @ 8:00 PM, Massey Fair, Massey, ON
September 5 @ 8:00 PM, Playland Amusement Park, Vancouver, BC
September 11 @ 6:00 PM, Port Credit Memorial Park, Mississauga, ON
September 12 @ 5:30 PM, Badlands Amphitheatre, Drumheller, AB
September 26 @ 7:30 PM, Palais Montcalm, Québec, QC
September 27 @ 3:00 PM, Lakefield United Church, Lakefield, ON
January 16, 2027 @ 8:00 PM, Italian Cultural Centre, Thunder Bay, ON
January 18, 2027 @ 7:30 PM, Dryden Regional Training and Cultural Centre, Dryden, ON
January 21, 2027 @ 7:30 PM, Townshend Theatre, Fort Frances, ON
