What would you give up? Really give up.

Rolling Stone wrote writer Stepehn Holden wrote"Phoebe Snow has made it. On a musical level she shows the potential of becoming a great jazz singer. Among confessional pop songwriters she immediately ranks with the finest."

Writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1976, Dennis Hunt said Phoebe's voice had "a marvelous 'cracked' quality" and added she "glides through and glances off notes in an appealing offbeat manner."

This amazing artist Phoebe Snow was a - one of a kind - in more than one sense of the term.

With a music and entertainment industry desperately built on the 'next greatest thing', Phoebe's work was soon to be a purine source of provocative fuel for years to come - or so the industry thought.

That is until she gave birth to her daughter, Valerie Rose Laub in 1975. Valerie was born with severe brain damage and in the eyes of the industry Phoebe was a burden to this up and coming artist. Yet Valerie was not a burden to her mother Phoebe, who forfeited a career as well a marriage to be the sole caretaker of her precious child.

Phoebe made the incredible decision - against the industry - against the norms - against the suggestions of the people to institutionalize her daughter - to raise her on her own. For thirty-one years Phoebe was the sole caretaker of her daughter Valerie Rose till her death in 2007. Phoebe personally shared in 2008 Valerie her daughter had been “the only thing that was holding me together. My life was her, completely about her, from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed at night."

Sue Cameron, Phoebe's manager said the singer “was one of the brightest, funniest and most talented singer-songwriters of all time and, more importantly, a magnificent mother to her late brain-damaged daughter, Valerie, for 31 years." Closing with, "Phoebe felt that was her greatest accomplishment."

Phoebe Snow, one of America's most inspiring singer-songwriters, and more importantly a vision of motherhood, passed away one week ago on April 26th, 2011.

Articles crossing the spectrum of music and entertainment write that Phoebe never quite made it back to that pivotal moment in her career. That despite the attempts since her hits in the 70's, she came up short - insinuating - 'if it just had not been for that child, Phoebe could have been so much more.'

This writer believes Phoebe was more than the sum of her music, the disposable fuel the industry so desperately needs and is not bound by simple earthly accomplishments. Phoebe Snow leaves with us all the thought: "What would you give up? Really give up? To love another, to continue a life commitment, a gift of life - what would you really give?"

"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

Till next time,
Kurt