A Conversation with Crystal Lewis
How this 35 year music industry veteran found her voice and began a new musical chapter.
This past week, I had the opportunity to talk with Crystal Lewis in conjunction with the premiere of her new music video, “Just Like That,” which debuts today! We had a rich, rich conversation about her thirty-five year career and her stellar new work, Rhapsody. Below is an excerpt from my article, written for her website. You can click here to read it in its entirety.
If you don’t know Crystal’s work, stay right here! I’m detailing my 5 favorite tunes from her thirty-five year career as a starting place.
An excerpt from Rhapsody: Rebirth & Redefinition, A Conversation with Crystal Lewis:
The first time I heard Crystal Lewis was in 1986 when our local radio station was premiering “Only One,” the first single by a band she was fronting called Wild Blue Yonder. She was not even sixteen years old yet. The disc jockey predicted a long career and said something to the effect of, “Crystal Lewis has a voice you will never forget.” He was absolutely right.
Crystal’s career, however, has not been made by magic. Since that debut, she has continually reinvented herself, finding new musical forms to wrap her voice around, and inviting collaborations that were not always the predictable next-step. Read more here.
My Top 5 Crystal Lewis Tunes
This Too Shall Pass (with Yolanda Adams), from Sisters: The Story Goes On (1996)
Let me start by saying that Sisters: The Story Goes On is one of the most overlooked albums in CCM history. One of the few albums in the genre boasting a woman-producer, Cheryl Rogers did a brilliant job of pairing, in many cases, unlikely artists together (like Beverly Crawford and Cindy Morgan!) with triumphant results. This duet with Crystal and Yolanda Adams, who was the leading female voice in contemporary gospel at the time, proved what many of us had already known for a decade—these two vocalists deserved far more exposure outside of the gospel world than they’d received at that point in their careers.
Lost Inside of You (with Jon Gibson), from Change of Heart (1988)
Jon Gibson was one of the most interesting additions to the world of CCM in the 80’s. He came into the CCM world as a mainstream R&B artist with one album, produced by Bill Wolfer, a session musician who had worked on Stevie Wonder’s Hotter Than July and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” His 1986 On The Run was co-produced by Felton Pilate (Con Funk Shun). Gibson contributed “Breakdown” to Crystal’s solo debut, Beyond The Charade, in 1987 and they came together a year later to record this Steven Crumbacher/Bill Baumgart composition. While Crystal’s first album featured two duet partners who didn’t match her fire, her collaboration with Gibson brought the best out of them both.
Over Me from Beauty for Ashes (1996)
For any who were aware of the band Lone Justice, it was easy to speculate that their front woman, Maria McKee, had been an influence for Crystal in her Wild Blue Yonder days (this actually comes up in my conversation with Crystal), so it was a joyous occasion. for those in the know, when she recorded this McKee composition, co-written with Patrick Sugg, on her hugely successful Beauty for Ashes album. If you haven’t taken a deep dive into McKee’s catalog both as a part of Lone Justice and as a solo artist, do!
Bloom (2017)
Released two years after her self-titled full-length album, “Bloom” marked the beginning of a new musical chapter. “Things change. That season’s over now,” she sings, seemingly, in a sense, pointing us back to 2016’s “Beginning Again,” in which she sang, “For so long, it was the same sound, I sang it over and over again. The pull of the past was holding me back.” With “Bloom,” Crystal turned the page and began a new chapter.
Sunrise from Rhapsody (2019)
2019’s Rhapsody is the result of Crystal’s rebirth. Jazz-centered, soulful and introspective, it is, in many ways, the album of her career thus far. It is chock full of great story songs with exquisite musicianship and, of course, Crystal in incredible voice. Her study in recent years of classic song stylists has only expanded the colors her voice explores. “Sunrise” is full of delicious Crystal-ness, the perfect combination of a timeless message with a lot of heart pulsing in the vocal delivery.
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