Pick of the Day: Crystal Shawanda

Generally at prairie dog we shy away from covering country music. Does that make us assholes? Maybe. But we do style ourselves as a city magazine. And while it's true that country music does have a following in Regina, we prefer to focus our time, energy and talent (not just in music, but in all facets of arts and entertainment) on stuff that's got more of an urban vibe to it.

In that regard, country music strikes us as being decidedly rural and old school. Besides, to borrow an old agriculture metaphor, when it comes to country music it's pretty hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Yeah, there's some talented performers out there. But there's also a lot of uber-cheesy, uber-corny, redneck wankers too.

Thus far in her career, Crystal Shawanda has avoided falling into that trap. Of Ojibwe descent, she released her debut album in June 2008. It was called Dawn of a New Day which happens to be what her surname (Shawanda) translates as in English. She's at the Casino Regina Lounge tonight. Here's the video for her debut single "You Can Let Go" (YouTube)