Ray Curenton

@raycurenton

Nashville cultural worker. Singer-songwriter. Music for seekers and deep listeners, somewhere between folk and soul. (music at the link) 🏳️‍🌈 Free Bandcamp codes:

787 Folgt943 Follower1.283 Posts

YouTube Bluesky

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Ray Curenton@raycurenton· 7d

More faithful adaptation of the original source material:

Book cover for the first hardcover edition (1974) of Jaws by Peter Benchley, featuring a swimmer at the surface above a large shark approaching from below on a black background.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· May 17

Ooo this is a good question. Not a mixing engineer but I have a lot of strong feelings about mixes

silhouette13studio:

Mixing engineers, what famous song has a "bad" mix, in your opinion?

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· May 1

It’s #BandcampFriday and free download codes are almost all gone for: “NFC” (single, 8 left): getmusic.fm/r/ray-curent... Backslider: Side A (EP, 1 left): getmusic.fm/r/ray-curent... Help me get these fully claimed today 👀

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Apr 30

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Apr 26

Arrived today! I love her already

My new Klim Nomad portable CD player, next to my copy of Usher’s Hard II Love (2016) album

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Apr 24

I’ve been seeing these 3 bodies of work as disparate. Too lacking in continuity. Making strong statements individually, but not in enough conversation with each other to make “Ray Curenton” coherent or legible. I’m not seeing it that way anymore. And that really excites me.

Believer, a.k.a. The Last Shall Be the First (2023)

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Apr 1

march 2026 topster

Various Artists - Can't Seem to Come Down: The American Sounds of 1968
Summer Walker - Finally Over It
Ari Lennox - Vacancy
Lil Nas X - MONTERO

Joann Rosario - More, More, More
Shoshana Bean - Only Smoke
FLO - The Lead
Men Of Standard - Surrounded

Mariah Carey - E=MC2 (Deluxe Version)
Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl
Jennifer Lopez - LOVE?
Julie London - Lonely Girl

Kygo - Save My Love
The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Alesso - Fade
Bebe Rexha - Çike Çike

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Mar 13

🫠

spotifyforartists: This year, more than 13,800 artists generated at least $100,000 on Spotify.

In fact, more artists generated over $100K in 2025 than generated $50K just five years ago (13,500).

(24,700 artists generated at least $50,000 on Spotify in 2025.)

corbinmorbin: Out of all the millions of artists?

spotifyforartists: Yes millions of artist profiles on Spotify, but the majority are hobbyists. Nearly two thirds have 0-10 tracks only, and half are first time uploaders. Of the ~ 250k on Spotify seriously pursuing music, more than ever are succeeding, and that's
growing every day.

jessiejayne.music: @spotifyforartists if 2/3rds of users on ur platform have 0-10 tracks and struggling to get heard how might you elevate their music instead of those with higher budgets to spend on marketing. As a small indie artist I don't know why I'm being charged to use your ad tools for example :/ should it not be included at my level?

raycurenton: @spotifyforartists delineating "hobbyists" from artists "seriously pursuing music" is like when economists don't count underemployed workers in unemployment rates because said workers have resigned themselves to making less than they're worth in a broken economy. I think a far greater portion of the artists that you call hobbyists are indeed "serious" musicians who love music and would love to make even a part-time living from it but don't make much of it and have resigned themselves to doing less of it because they can't afford to-in no small part because streaming royalty rates are abyssal and the ROl on promotion is nonexistent. The deck is completely stacked against us and we get written off as "hobbyists" if we somehow don't rise above it. Wow.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Mar 9

Hearing/reading scientists who happen to also be devout Christians say they believe in both God and evolution and have no trouble reconciling that—that I could be an intellectual and still leave room for the supernatural—was groundbreaking to me. www.pbs.org/wgbh/evoluti...

Francisco J. Ayala:

Well-informed Catholics do not see conflict between their religious beliefs and the Darwinian theory of biological evolution. In 1996, Pope John Paul II stated that the conclusions reached by scientific disciplines cannot be in contradiction with divine Revelation, then proceeded to accept the scientific conclusion that evolution is a well-established theory.

The Pope went on to point out that science deals with material reality, while questions of "moral conscience, freedom, or … of aesthetic and religious experience, fall within the competence of philosophical analysis and reflection, while theology brings out [their] ultimate meaning according to the Creator's plans."

For more than a decade, I have taught the theory of evolution to freshmen. During the early part of the course students come to me, year after year, to express their reservations based on their perceived contradiction between Christian beliefs and the theory of evolution. I treat these students with the great respect they deserve, but respond to them with two considerations very similar to the points made by John Paul II. One is that the evolution of organisms is beyond reasonable doubt, so that the theory of evolution is accepted in this respect with the same certainty that we attribute to Copernicus's heliocentric theory or the molecular composition of matter. The second consideration is that science is a very successful way of knowing, but not the only way. We acquire knowledge in many other ways, such as through literature, the arts, philosophical reflection, and religious experience. A scientific view of the world is hopelessly incomplete. Science seeks material explanations for material processes, but it has nothing definitive to say about realities beyond its scope. Once science has had its say, there remain questions of value, purpose, and meaning that are forever beyond science's domain, but belong in the realm of philosophical reflection and religious experience.

Mark Noll:

Some evangelical Christians have trouble reconciling evolution and a traditional belief in God as creator and sustainer of the world, but I do not. Within the evangelical tribe, I belong to the Calvinist wing, where a long history exists of accepting that God speaks to humans through "two books" (Scripture and nature), and since there is but one author of the two books, there is in principle no real conflict possible between what humans learn from solidly grounded science and solidly grounded study of the Bible. Of course, if "evolution" is taken to mean a grand philosophical Explanation of Everything based upon Pure Chance, then I don't believe it at all. But as a scientific proposal for how species develop through natural selection, I say let the scientists who know what they are doing use their expertise and whatever theories help to find out as much as they can. On the Bible side, I do not think it is necessary to read everything in early Genesis as if it were written by a fact-checker at the New York Times. But as a persuasive basis for believing 1) that God made the original world stuff, 2) that he providentially sustains all natural processes, and 3) that he used a special act of creation (perhaps out of nothing, perhaps from apelike ancestors) to make humans in his own image, the Bible is not threatened by responsible scientific investigations.

As a historian I am impressed by words of 19th-century conservative Presbyterian, Benjamin B. Warfield: "if we condition the theory [of evolution] by allowing the constant oversight of God in the whole process, and his occasional supernatural interference for the production of new beginnings by an actual output of creative force ... we may hold to the modified theory of evolution and be Christians in the ordinary orthodox sense." These words still hold true today.

Arthur Peacocke:

From my scientific background as a physical biochemist who, for nearly three decades in the mid-20th century, was much involved in unravelling the relation of the double-helical structure of DNA to its solution properties, I have long had an interest in the relation of genetics to biological evolution. The sequencing of DNA and proteins in a large range of species from bacteria to Homo sapiens has now crowned the previous strong evidence for the historical interconnectedness and a common origin of all living organisms and for evolution. The role of natural selection in this process is proven dominant, though I do not exclude the possibility that other natural factors*, widely discussed at the moment, may also be operative. The whole process is entirely natural and explicable by the sciences without requiring any special, non-natural, "lures" or influences.

As a theist -- one who considers that the best explanation of the existence and lawfulness of the natural world is that it depends for its existence and inbuilt rationality on a self-existent Ultimate Reality (a Creator "God") -- I find the epic of evolution, from the "Hot Big Bang" to Homo sapiens, an illumination of how the Creator God is and has been creating. Evolution enriches our insights into the nature and purposes of the divine creation -- its fecundity, variety, its ability to manifest an increase in complexity to the point where the physical stuff of the world acquires the (holistic) capacity to be self-conscious, to think (in "mental" activity), to instantiate values and to relate to its Creator (in "spiritual" activity). I regard God as creating in, with, and through the natural as unveiled by the sciences; hence I espouse a "theistic naturalism."

*To name a few: the possible operation of self-organising principles; how the evolution of an organism can depend on its innovative behaviour; and "top-down causation" through flow of information from the environment to the organism.

Robert Pollack:

Evolution is interesting to me because natural selection explains certain facts of life that touch on matters of meaning and purpose, and because the vision of the natural world these explanations produce is simply too terrifying and depressing to me to be borne without the emotional buffer of my own religion. This buffer is simple to describe: a Jewish understanding of our appearance by evolution through natural selection introduces an irrational certainty of meaning and purpose to a set of data that otherwise show no sign of supporting any meaning to our lives on Earth, beyond that of being numbers in a cosmic lottery with no paymaster.

I acknowledge there is a wholly consistent alternative description of the natural world and our place in it, which can lead one to exactly the actions I may wish to take or encourage others to take, all without any belief in God. Nothing is wrong with that position. It used to be my own, but as I have gotten older, I find I no longer can honestly hold to it. When I asked my teacher Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz how to respond to this criticism of my position by non-believing friends, he said, "If you know someone who says the Throne of God is empty, and lives with that, then you should cling to that person as a good, strong friend. But be careful: Almost everyone who says that, has already placed something or someone else on that Throne, usually themselves."

I find myself accepting the God of my ancestors in part because it is my way of discovering meaning and purpose without denying or distorting the data of science, and in part because otherwise I might put some person, some ideology, some dream of completed science in God's place.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Mar 9

My sexuality was already causing a rift all through my adolescence but engaging with the materials put together for this NOVA series on evolution for my high school Biology B course is what really began breaking that dam. youtu.be/mg0oMzshT9Y

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Feb 13

I’m not gonna sit here & act like I haven’t enjoyed every project since, but man this one right here? Peak. The inventiveness. The expansiveness. The world-building—both in soundscape & narrative. The complete lack of give-a-shit about commercial potential. Just…sheer brilliance.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Feb 6

It’s #BandcampFriday and free download codes are almost all gone for: • “Ground Zero” (single, 4 left) • Backslider: Side A (EP, 7 left) • Ripples of the Past (album, 9 left) Help me get these fully claimed today 👀 getmusic.fm/artists/ray-...

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Feb 6

See you tomorrow night Nashville!

FIRST FRIDAYS
Testimony Service

2026 SCHEDULE
JAN 2
FEB 6
MAR 6
APR 3
MAY 1
JUN 5
JUL 3
AUG 7
SEP 4
OCT 2
NOV 6
DEC 4

SANGTUARY at 7:00 pm
1718 14TH AVENUE NORTH
NASHVILLE

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Jan 12

Been a while since I’ve seen such an egregious error on the Wikipedia page for a really popular subject. KPop Demon Hunters is the first soundtrack in history to generate four *simultaneous* top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100. Plenty of other soundtracks have had 4+ top 10s, just not in the same week

From KPop Demon Hunters’ Wikipedia article:

The film's soundtrack achieved similar success; it became the first film soundtrack on the Billboard Hot 100 to have four of its songs in the top ten, was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in October 2025, and received five Grammy Award nominations. A short film, titled Debut: A KPop Demon Hunters Story, was rated in September by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) while a sequel is planned to be released in 2029.

From KPop Demon Hunters’ Wikipedia article:

Additionally, the film's soundtrack became the first in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to feature four of its songs in the top ten, which include "Golden", "Your Idol", "Soda Pop", and "How It's Done.” It is the first film soundtrack since Waiting to Exhale (1995) to feature at least three of its songs in the top 10.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Jan 6

I think this is 95% accurate tenpages.github.io/us-level/us....

US Level 71

Lived Here (5 pts): MA, NY, OH, TN
Stayed Here (4 pts): CA, DC, GA, FL, IL, MD, NC, SC
Visited Here (3 pts): CT, KY, NJ, WV
Stopped Here (2 pts): IN, PA, VA
Passed Here (1 pt): DE
Want to be Here (0 pts): I actually forgot to do this category, but I’m open to visiting HI, LA, MO, MN, NV, OR, TX, WA
Never Been Here: all the others

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Jan 4

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Dec 30

Gonna call it now. It always feels weird to do these kinds of lists cus I’m going to keep discovering music from this year (and past years) into the future. But these are the 2025 albums and EPs I did catch within the calendar year and enjoyed a great deal.

JoJo - NGL (Jan 24)
Luke Sital-Singh - Fool's Spring (Feb 21)
Lady Gaga - Mayhem (Mar 7)
Lil Nas X - Days Before Dreamboy (Mar 28)
Elton John & Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels (Apr 4)
Mei Semones - Animaru (May 2)
Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend (Aug 29)
Ron Sexsmith - Hangover Terrace (Aug 29)
Halle - love?...or something like it (Oct 24)
Mavis Staples - Sad and Beautiful World (Nov 7)
Mario - Mood Swings (Nov 14)

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Dec 29

As you can see, while Spotify is paying out the least amount per stream, I have made more money from Spotify this year than every other streaming outlet combined.

Streaming Platform Avg Earnings/Stream Streams Total Earnings (USD)
Amazon Prime (Streaming) 0.0030 55 $0.16
Apple Music 0.0051 965 $4.90
Deezer 0.0074 13 $0.08
Pandora 0.0032 970 $2.25
Spotify 0.0022 36,827 $101.29
Tidal 0.0091 60 $0.52
YouTube (Ads) 0.0032 176 $0.48
YouTube (Red) 0.0077 45 $0.32
Grand Total 0.0031 39,111 $110.01

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Dec 23

Nashville: we’re bringing back testimony services once a month, starting in January. • Traditional gospel music • Completely inclusive environment (I wouldn’t have it any other way) • Open space for catharsis and (hopefully) healing • Stewarded by an organization doing great work for our community

First Fridays: Testimony Service
Starting January 2nd
Sangtuary at 7:00 pm

Sangtuary
1718 14th Avenue, Nashville

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Dec 18

I have never accepted the “album-equivalent unit” as something with any real meaning and the overweighing of streams in Billboard’s chart formulas has been a travesty for a long time now. Free streams even more so.

"YouTube is by far the worst offender," Azoff stated at a recent industry conference. Breaking things down further, Azoff pointed out that YouTube generated $60 billion in revenue and paid only $8 billion to rights holders - about 13% - while Spotify generated roughly $18 billion in revenue and paid about $12 billion to music rights holders, nearly 67% of its revenue.

By any measure, Apple Music, Spotify, and others pay substantially better than Youlube. Yet somehow, YouTube argues it should have equal weight in the charts because of its cultural relevance?

But this gets even worse. Because platforms like Spotify and Apple Music gained those music subscribers despite the constant drag of YouTube's free music access. According to industry scuttle-butt, Spotify might even have been willing to seriously limit, or even eliminate, free access if YouTube weren't such a competitive threat to non-paying listeners.

The takeaway is clear: YouTube's massive free tier has consistently undermined the entire subscription ecosystem that compensates artists at much higher rates.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Dec 10

“Ripples of the Past” hits No. 1! Thank you Alt Q! 💙🌊

ALT Q: Alternative Queer Radio
Alt Q Top 20
Week of November 17th, 2025
| This Week | Last Week | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | RAY CURENTON | RIPPLES OF THE PAST |
| 2 | 4 | GLEN MEADMORE | NO MONEY, NO HONEY |
| 3 | 3 | HELEN COUNTS | UNRAVEL |
| 4 | 5 | SEA BYRNE | WHAT YOU LOST |
| 5 | 6 | CALEB NICHOLS | SLATE AGE |
| 6 | 8 | AMMONITE | SIDEWINDER |
| 7 | 7 | ELLE ARCHER | TIGHTROPE |
| 8 | 11 | ELECTRO LAGUBO | HAVE WE ASKED TOO MUCH |
| 9 | 10 | LAILAH LANSING | LOVE LOST |
| 10 | 13 | BAHA JARVIS | BAHA FASHION |
| 11 | 12 | ZOE KONEZ | HUMAN |
| 12 | 9 | LOYD | EGO DEATH |
| 13 | 20 | SUPERKNOVA | A CIS TEEN PAINTED THIS CHAPEL |
| 14 | 15 | DOGVIOLET | NOW |
| 15 | 18 | JEFF BLUE LINE - THOMAS YORE | SUNDAY EVENING BLUE (REDUX) |
| 16 | 1 | SASHA ALLEN | FIRE IN AMERICA |
| 17 | 17 | HD EM-I | CHANGELING |
| 18 | NEW | CHRIS GARNEAU | RIOT |
| 19 | NEW | ERIC HOLM | I DON’T CARE WHERE YOU’RE FROM |
| 20 | 14 | BOI AND THE GHOULS | LITTLE SH*T HEAD |
MON/TUES/FRI 4pmPT 7pmET 11pmGMT Alt Q Radio
WED/THUR 8amPT 11amET 3pmGMT LIVE 365

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Nov 29

I am so proud of myself. I’ve always wanted to stick to my goal of reading a book a month for a full year and I finally did it!

Challenge Details

2025 Reading Challenge
Congrats! You've reached your goal.

13 of 12 books read | 33 days left
108%

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Nov 28

getmusic.fm/r/ray-curent...

Believer, a.k.a. The Last Shall Be the First

Ray Curenton (@raycurenton):

Books that inspired Believer:

Black Against Empire: The History & Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom & Waldo E. Martin, Jr.

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

Just Above My Head by James Baldwin

Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches by Audre Lorde

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song by Ronnie Gilbert

The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx

Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry & Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Nov 3

Gotta love that anti-flat butt technology

Another Mott & Bow ad. Close-up of a person wearing fitted green jeans outdoors, with text promoting Mott & Bow's "anti flat-butt technology" and various product benefits:
* Women grab temptation
* Take all the compliments in the room
* Age-appropriate
*Boost your confidence

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 28

I still don’t fully know where this lyric came from…or what it fully means. “Shadowed and shone to guide them.” “For one, for all, for life, for long.” More than any other song on the project, this one is a great mystery to me. #acoustic #songwriter #nashvillemusic #ripplesofthepast #folksoul

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 28

It’s these three for me

Folded (Remix) [feat. Brandy]
Kehlani, Brandy

Folded (Remix) [feat. JoJo]
Kehlani, JoJo

Folded (Remix) [feat. Mario]
Kehlani, Mario

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 27

My second studio album, Backslider, is featured this week on @getmusic.bsky.social getmusic.fm

The album cover for Backslider (2014), featuring me, with a short fro and gold eye makeup, looking directly at the camera and resting my hand under my chin, against a dark background.

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 22

I am so unable kehlani.lnk.to/FoldedHomage...

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 13

Original written as a prayer for a family member, I’ve found this piece to have more and more resonance for myself. The harmony layers on the album recording were a joy to record—a very spiritual experience. 💙 #singersongwriter #acoustic #strippeddown #folksoul

Ray Curenton@raycurenton· Oct 1

Spent time with some of these new songs the other day. This is one of my favorite melodies on the whole project 💙 #singersongwriter #acoustic #strippeddown #folksoul