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My friends think I am old school when I say no "pop", contemporary Christian musician leaves me feeling like Rich Mullins does. I jam Fela, Bob Marley, Danny Gans, Masekela, Nina, Fugees and ilks. I believe too music is useless if it can't make me feel something. This is such a beautiful post, and an amazing performance to go with it. I will resteem this and follow you right away.

P.S. And I am having fun with the further readings you hyper-linked.

Thank you so much for your comment and upvote. I am so glad to hear that I am not alone in my sentiments. I followed you back as well and I am looking forward to seeing some of your storytelling posts. Take care!

Sad songs define my breath, my existence, my life. It's dark, it's twisted, it's me.

I invite you to please share your favorite sad songs, singers and stories that rouse those deeper, darker emotions

"Everything Costs" by Radical Face.

I definitely feel ya on that. Thank you for the musical suggestion. I'll add it to my playlist.

Upvote and followed do follow me thanks. Stay blessed.

Thank you very much ;-)

I was touched by your voice, even without speaking the same language, music makes you feel in your heart what the mind can not understand.

Absolutely. Music is a language all its own and connects our brain in ways that we don't fully understand. My step-father's father has severe dementia and is non-verbal and grumpy most of the time. The other night I pulled out my guitar and sang some old country songs. The moment I started singing, he threw his hands in the air, contorted his face and then started smiling and making eye contact with me and other people in the room. For a few minutes, it's like he came back.

Amanda , you move me to move myself from happy to melancholy on a limited basis. I try to feel the vibrations of the earth that surround me , you bring a curtain of joy in a strange way. Felling this i salute you for your honesty. much peace , ONE LOVE

@geraldgunia. I'm glad to have inspired you somewhat. It is impossible to be happy all the time and it is important to honor feelings of sadness. Suppression of the "negative" aspects of human emotion lessens the opportunity to experience pure joy as well. It takes a great deal of energy to maintain a positive vibration and attitude when circumstances, experiences and hormones/ chemicals are dragging us down. Safe and controlled expressions of grief are opportunities to purge those emotions and create more room for joy, love and gratitude.

Congratulations @amandarichards!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade for newcomers in the following category:

  • Pending payout - Ranked 2 with $ 91,62

I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on Steemit, feel free to vote for my witness! You can do it here or use SteemConnect

Thank you so much. It is such a surprise and honor and gets me very excited about my future with this platform. It is alarming to see that the number was $96 and has dropped since then, though. Makes me wonder if I lost votes or if that number is tied in to the value of SBD? So much to learn still but thank you so much for the recognition and encouragement. I will keep at it! IMG_5480.PNG

The payouts that you see on a post reflect a rolling 3 day average of the price of Steem (SBD doesn't come into play there) - what upvotes actually give you are "rshares" (reward shares) which are tiny tiny little slices of the eventual reward pool payout. The actual value of the rshares you have received through upvotes on a post varies with the market price of Steem. They use a rolling 3 day average so it isn't as volatile but when there is a big drop in price that sustains over several days, yeah, you will see pending payouts crater.

Thank you. I appreciate that insight.

Ah what a beautiful post! Your voice is haunting. The funeral dirge is such an ancient human custom, cutting across a very wide swathe of disparate cultures. Interesting to hear the term "appoggiaturas", was not familiar with it but intuitively I know this concept to be true. BTW as I type this, my one year old is sitting next to me listening to you sing and he just started singing along :)

I wish you good luck in your quest to find and record the saddest songs! This kinda feels like someone should make a documentary about you and this process as well.

This post was nominated by a @curie curator to be featured in an upcoming Author Showcase post on the @curie blog. If you agree to be featured in this way, please reply and:

  • Let us know if we can quote text and/or feature images from your post.
  • If you would like to provide a brief statement about your posting, your life or anything else to be included in the article, you can do so in reply here or look me up on Discord chat (@gnashster#6522 ) or even (last resort) email, same username as here with ye olde gmail appended.

You can check out the previous week's Author Showcase to get an idea of what we are doing with these posts.

Cheers - Carl (@curie curator)

Yes, I agree. You can also say: "Amanda Richards is an award-winning songwriter, entertainer and playwright from Portland, OR where she performs regularly with her band, The Good Long Whiles." More info can be found at www.amandarichards.net

Thank you!

Oh hey Portland :) I am down in Eugene/Springfield. I will let you know when the Showcase post is up, usually the wee hours Wednesday night / Thursday AM

Great! Thanks so much! I'll follow you so we can stay in touch. I met some peeps from Eugene at a Portland Steemit Meetup a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I'll catch him you in person sometime ;-)