Wrapping up a very troubling year, "Very Dark, Very Appropriate" explores why we love listening to really sad music and how this can actually be good for us. This episode's featured guest is Stacey McGuirl, musician and San Francisco based psychotherapist. Visit www.staceymcguirl.com for more.

Keep digging into the sadness with these helpful links:

Nick Cave lecture: The Secret Life of the Love Song: http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/listen-to-nick-caves-lecture-on-the-art-of-writing-sublime-love-songs-1999.html

Feeling Blue? Sad songs DO help us cope better with grief, study finds:http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2016/march/feeling-blue-sad-songs-do-help-us-cope-better-with-grief-study-finds.aspx

Why We Like Sad Music (New York Times):http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/why-we-like-sad-music.html

For a special sad song play list created by Lily with input from listeners: https://open.spotify.com/user/lilysloane/playlist/1POVR78ZnqXnrmaVfwuie2

Credits

Producer: Lily SloaneEditorial Support: Stacey McGuirl

Music Credits

"Tough As Texas": My Side Project (download/listen on Bandcamp):https://mysideproject.bandcamp.com/album/my-side-project

"Downprov": Richard Marchant (download/listen on Soundcloud):https://soundcloud.com/arjuan/downprov

"Everybody Leaves": Lily&Stacey (download/listen on Soundcloud):https://soundcloud.com/user-566886405/everybody-leaves-song

Additional Music & Sound Design: Lily Sloane

Episode photo by Marc Gautier, used under creative commons:http://tinyurl.com/gskyzb9

Special thanks to my traveling buddies in Japan for use of our sad music conversation and everyone who pitched in their favorite sad songs for the playlist.

Please subscribe and sign up for the newsletter at www.atherapistwalksintoabar.com so you don't miss what's coming in 2017!