Who might this be you ask, and how has she gone viral?
Well, it's none other than the beautiful and talented Shannon Curtis.
Photo by Stephan Babuljak Photography
And I'll get to the viral part in a minute.
I first heard about Shannon through a mutual friend. My friend, D we'll call her, invited me to a house concert last June. Never heard of a house concert before? Neither had I, lol... Anyway, D had invited me to another one a year or two prior, but for some reason I didn't go. This time, she shared a link to a cute song by Shannon called "Let's Stay In" Watch it first, and you'll see what I saw and heard:
Amazing song. Adorable visuals on this as well!
The song by itself got me intrigued. I absolutely love her voice, and her lyrics are thought provoking! So I looked up a few other songs, and listened to them and decided "Why not?"
June 2014 came, and I joined my friend D and a bunch of other locals for the house concert. Set in a backyard just a couple blocks from my own house, on a nice summer evening, I had no idea what to expect. When I arrived, I quickly found D, and she immediately introduced me to Shannon!
By the end of the evening, my teenage daughter, my then 5yo son, and myself were amazed. It was amazing to hear Shannon's voice mix angelically with her synthesizer. I absolutely LOVED the songs she had sung. She was promoting her newest album at the time Metaforma. I took the opportunity to purchase that album, and a couple other albums that she had brought along.
See the unique thing about Shannon is that she does these house concerts via donations and merchandise sales. She does not sell tickets for her concerts, nor performs in huge stadiums. She travels all over the US and sometimes into Canada with her husband/producer Jaime Hill, in their cute little VW car. Just the two of them. Love it! And through their travels, they connect with EVERYONE. She not only has her personal Facebook page, but also a professional FB page, a website, a YouTube channel, Twitter... She has a heart of gold too. I'll tell you more about that in just a sec.
Right now she is in the planning for her 2015 Summer House Concert Tour. I hope to hear that she is coming near me again, so I can see her perform again. Hopefully I'll be in a better position to sign up to host one of her house concerts next year. :)
Just a few days ago she unveiled her newest video, with a song that is off her upcoming album which she will be promoting during this summer's house concert tour. Before I share that video with you, you need to know a little more about her video and the song. The song is titled "I Know, I Know" It's a powerful song. The message is real. To add to the lyrics, the video shows snippets of personal messages from some of her friends. A few months ago she posted on her FB asking for some help with a project. Turns out the project was this song and video! Who knows how many people submitted videos to her for the project, but the ones she picked were powerful.
So, I'll just get right to the point: the video was unveiled April 7th. Yesterday afternoon, April 15th, the video ended up on Upworthy, an online publishing/news feed on FB. They share "things that matter."
To put it in other words: THE VIDEO HAS GONE VIRAL!! As of last tally (just as I'm typing), the post share via Upworthy about Shannon's video for "I Know, I Know" has had over 2.3 MILLION VIEWS!!
NOW, see the video for yourself!
I'm throwing around ideas for my own message to share with Shannon on her site that she shares at the end of the video: http://iknowiknow.me.
And yesterday Shannon and Jaime started a 3 week long fundraising campaign to get the new album Connections into finished production. Check out her webpage at http://shannoncurtis.net/, and help her out by clicking on the right side of the page, and picking a donation level that you are comfortable with. I'm still debating on which level I can afford vs which one I really want to donate to. :) A bonus: one of the $40 donation levels will have ALL PROCEEDS go to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance!
Now can you understand why I said she has a heart of gold? :)
Now GO! Listen to her music. Support her efforts! BECOME A FAN!! <3 <3 <3
