Sultans Of String And Crystal Shawanda Collaborate On New Single Close To Her Heart “The Rez”
“The Rez” is a collaboration between 2x JUNO Award-winning blues and country music artist Crystal Shawanda and 3x JUNO nominated, 6x CFMA winning Sultans of String. Crystal is an Ojibwe Potawatomi Indigenous singer, born in Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, is also decorated with multiple Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, a CCMA, a Canadian Radio Music Award, and too many JUNO nominations to list.
“I started singing as soon as I could make noise”, says Crystal. “I grew up in a house where everybody listened to all styles of music – and from an early age I could see that for my family, music was like therapy. So depending on what mood they were in, that’s the song they would listen to. My dad taught me to play guitar and after he taught me everything he knew, he suggested I take lessons. He always tried to let me know how important it was to be able to play an instrument for myself.”
Initially signed to RCA in 2007, she hit her stride as a country singer and songwriter when she scored a top 20 hit with her song “You Can Let Go” and subsequently tallied sales of over 50,000 copies of her debut album Dawn of a New Day and subsequently debuted in the Billboard Top 20.
Fast forward 16 years, and even though Crystal now lives in Nashville, with many albums and awards under her belt, she still keeps her ‘Rez’ roots close to her heart.
“I wrote The Rez with Ed Hill and Shay Smith, and it came out of the stories I had shared with them, when they asked me what it was like growing up on a reservation”, Crystal explains, “After which they said ‘that sounds like a song’, and from there it came together pretty quick!”
“I’m very proud of my roots, proud to be a ‘Rez kid’, she continues. “I grew up around intergenerational trauma, but that’s not all I remember. I can’t speak for everyone’s experience, but in mine I remember my beautiful family that surrounded me with love and showed me that laughter, like music can be medicine. I remember my community, so resilient and strong. We have all been through so much, but we’re still here. My roots, ‘The Rez’ is very much a part of who I am as an artist and person.”
“The Rez” is the fourth single off the upcoming Sultans of String album entitled Walking Through the Fire (Sept 22, 2023 release), the most ambitious and important project of their career, a CD and concert of collaborations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists across Turtle Island.
Studios were used throughout Ontario to record this track. Crystals vocals were recorded with Grammy and JUNO Award-winning John ‘Beetle’ Bailey at Orange Lounge Recording Studio in Toronto. Sultans of String bed tracks were recorded at Jukasa Studios, an Indigenous-owned world-class recording facility on another reservation, Six Nations of the Grand River, south of Hamilton Ontario.
Recently asked in an interview if she goes back to Manitoulin, she answered “Definitely for inspiration. I go to Manitoulin Island to rejuvenate my soul. When I’m there, it’s being around my family, my community, and even just the land. It’s the island, the water, the land. When I’m there, I feel inspired.”
Like the song says:
It’s my blood, it’s my tears,
Everyone I love is here,
Yeah I know in my heart I was blessed,
To grow up on the Rez.
Watch the video for “The Rez” below and learn more via our mini-interview with Sultans of String.
You’ve been here before, and welcome back! How’s the summer been for you so far?
Hello! It is so glorious to be out performing at beautiful Canadian folk festivals! We just performed at Home County Folk Festival in London, ending off on a workshop stage with Ashley MacIsaac, and coming up we are at Hillside Festival in Guelph. Canadian summers are short, so we really try to make the most of it, mixing folk festivals with family camping and canoeing trips!
Tell us about the process of writing and recording “The Rez” with Crystal Shawanda.
This is a song that Crystal had previously written for a different project, but it didn’t end up fitting into that one. We are super lucky because for this album “Walking Through the Fire” we really wanted to help convey diverse experiences from a broad range of Indigenous artists, and this was a point of view that was not reflected in any of the other songs. Crystal proposed it, playing us an early demo of it, and we fell in love with the song immediately. Of course, seeing and hearing Crystal sing this vocal live in the studio is exhilarating. She’s an incredible vocalist and gives her all on every track.
How did you connect with Crystal?
Crystal is such a powerful singer, and we reached out to her a half dozen years ago to work on a holiday album of ours. She is really fun to work with in the studio because she’s super pro, and always game to try singing a song with a couple of different approaches, experimenting to get the track to sound just right. Although she lives in Nashville, she travels back to Wiikwemkoong and venues in Ontario now and then, so we always treasure these opportunities to be in the same room and make some music together.
You get the best collaborators – from all over the globe. What do you look for in a collaboration?
The best collaborations come about when all of us come together with an open spirit. It’s good to have enough time to spread out musically and be able to play like kids in a sandbox, trying many different vibes, feels, and approaches to a song. It is helpful if artists come together in a writing session with some inspirational launching points, but also to be ready to discard previous ideas quickly if the song takes a different turn. Not knowing how a song is actually going to end up is half the fun, and I like to follow the journey rather than have a definite idea of where we want to end up in the end. It also is very important when working with Indigenous artists like on this project, to honour the traditions and backgrounds of the artists, and to take time to really listen. This particular project is really an incredible opportunity to hear from many points of view, with an opportunity for Indigenous artists to share their experiences, their histories, and their lives.
What’s the best song with a collaboration or feature you know that people should check out?
I would say the instant collaborations that happen on workshop stages at folk festivals are the most exciting collaborations around! They often happen during the day at side stages at the festivals, with artists from around the globe often meeting each other for the first time, and playing on each other’s songs without any idea where the tune is going. The kind of energy, both for the artists on stage, and for the audience witnessing the instant mashup is unbeatable, and you know that you are witnessing something that has never happened before and may never happen again. See you out at the festivals!
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Connect with Crystal Shawanda:
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