Artist's Cookbook: Corn and Shrimp Soup Courtesy of Shannon Curtis

When a songwriter sits down to pen a song they have something in mind, a sort of destiny for the song. Some are meant for the dance floor where glistening bodies and colored lights will move, sway and grind to the beats (think Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" or LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls"). Others reach for the airwaves so that people in cars and kids on school buses will sing along as they move from one place to the next (Anything by Katy Perry, Ke$ha, etc...). Then there are the songs that are destined to be so much more. These are the songs that were penned for revolution, for creating a social change or to lead a movement. That's where Shannon Curtis' song "Brightest Light in the Room" fits.

The song is, at its core, a love song. Something that anyone, who has ever walked into a room and saw that one person who stood out brighter than the rest, can relate to. But Shannon didn't write it for just anyone. She had someone...well actually two people in mind when she wrote it. These two were young woman who, during the course of serving in the US Army, met and fell in love. For the next ten years they kept at their relationship despite multiple deployments to Iraq and all the heartache and hardships that come from loving someone who is at war. Eventually the two women decided to marry and one of them asked Shannon to write a song for the occasion. Thus "Brightest Light in the Room" was born. In just four and a half minutes Shannon creates a dual anthem, one that celebrates the demise of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy while offering a stepping stone for the next battle, allowing gay and lesbian Americans the right to marry.

"Brightest Light in the Room" is Shannon's first single from her upcoming album which will be released on Saint Cloud Records.

To accompany her alternative-electro-downtempo-dream pop-social movement song Shannon cooks up a delicious Corn and Shrimp Soup that comes straight from the southern kitchen (she learned the recipe from a Louisiana man who knows a thing or two about southern cuisine).

Shannon Curtis-Brightest Light in the Room