I’m Native American. We’re automatically country … joined to the land and the real stories of everyday people. A long time ago, we traditionally used music as our daily prayer and as our way of giving thanks. To Native Americans, music is our everything. It’s our storytelling, our history, and our dance. We use it to remember and to forget. It’s how we celebrate life and mourn death.
I wrote my first song at 9, not knowing that songwriting would become my way of coping with the hopelessness I saw around me on the reservation. Growing up, I watched too many people lose hope and leave this earth … including cousins and many friends of mine. I watched as my brothers lost almost every childhood friend before they were 16. But music was my hope. It saved me, and it became a doorway for me to find freedom from the hopelessness that we all felt on the reservation. Loretta Lynn was my childhood hero … and she continues to be that for me today. I grew up watching her be a friend to my mom through her music. Mom would sing along with those records like finally someone understood her. I want to be that for someone. I was born a country music singer. I was driven to sing, and I drove my parents nuts about it.
I’m a citizen of both the U.S. and Canada, though I was born in Ontario and grew up on a reservation called Wikwemikong on Canada’s Manitoulin Island. My daddy drove a truck from Michigan straight through Nashville on his North-South run, so I had a ride whenever they would let me go. I started my trips to Nashville at the age of 11. We stood on the sidewalk in front of Nashville’s famed Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and watched through the window. I was scared I would be told I wasn’t good enough. By 12, I had written enough songs to do my own little demo album which I sold back home to pay for more trips to Nashville. Country music had become my full time way of relating to my world. If I couldn’t write and sing, I couldn’t talk and feel.
Crystal is featured as an "Artists To Watch" New! Discover Music. Click HERE To Check It Out.
Spartan Youth Radio was lucky enough to interview Crystal Shawanda about her new Christmas album. Check it out...advanced sneak peek of two new songs! http://spartanyouthradio.com
It was nice to meet you and your show at the Shooting Star was incredible. Your voice is amazing. Your band and lead guitarist are fantasitc musicians. One of the very best performances that I have ever taken in.
Level 10 Ent x Club Kiss x Club Anonymous -pre thanksgiving bash
Wednesday November 25th, 2009 No school or work the next day
O V E R 1 5 0 0 C A P A C I T Y ! ! !
@ Club Double Decker 1828 Oak Street off Washington Los Angeles CA, 90015 (On Washington 1 block West of Figueroa)
$10 Admission - (Price will change)
aim-THAWIZZKIDD
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Level 10 Entertainment proudly presents...
Kicks & Chix 'the remix'
"FIRST 50 CHiX in FREE"! | $10 before 10pm
FRIDAY NIGHT november 27th, 2009
Doors Open @ 9pm
Live Performance By: Jaye Cooley, Infamous Kid, Laila V, Rejects & Suprise Special Guest
DJ WIZZ KIDD | DJ VISION | DJ MUSTARD L I V E I N T H E M I X
@ The Rancho Tech Center 901 W. Victoria Street Carson, CA 90220 (Purple Building)
TAKE ALL CONNECTING FREEWAYS TO THE 91 EAST, EXIT WILMINGTON, MAKE A RIGHT AND GO UNTIL YOU REACH VICTORIA, MAKE A RIGHT AND TURN IN THE 2ND DRIVEWAY. ______________________
IF INTERESTED IN PROMOTING LEVEL 10 EVENTS, PLEASE AIM: LEVEL10ENT or EMAIL: LEVEL10ENT@GMAIL.COM
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