We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason And Emily a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jason and Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In February 2020, I called my friend Jason.

“I’m calling just to let you know that I love you….”
“I love you, too.” he said.
We went on as platonic friends.
That call opened the door. A couple weeks later, Jason and I found ourselves lingering much longer than usual on a video chat until 4 a.m.

“There’s a lot happening right now…” I whispered. “So much spoken, and unspoken.” Jason nodded and smiled. That was all the green light he needed. The next morning, I woke up to a text.

“It appears we are falling in love in slow motion.” My heart raced. I had wings the rest of the day. By the next morning, however, a long list of fears overwhelmed me. Jason later admitted his list of fears was just as long. While the fears were swirling, we also could not deny that Utah and Maryland were starting to feel entirely too far apart.

Jason took charge of the situation which he humorously called “Operation 2,263 Miles”. The mission was to eliminate the distance between Cedar City, Utah and Parkton, Maryland as soon as possible. What complicated the situation, however, was that it was March of 2020, and the whole world was starting to close down.

“Whatever we decide,” Jason said, “we’ll want to do it quickly.” Every day we heard of more and more travel restrictions. Airports were shutting down. Roads were closing. After long conversations about our options, I finally made a rather abrupt late night decision and bought a one way ticket to Baltimore. Jason woke up the next morning to a copy of my itinerary.

“I hope it’s ok!” I said shyly. “I know we don’t have all the logistics in place yet, but I just don’t think we can delay even one day more.”
“It’s more than ok!” he beamed. “We’ll figure out the details. Just get here.”

Jason and I had only met in person for one day about six months earlier. Now, on March 20, 2020, I landed in Baltimore around midnight with a suitcase, a backpack, and a guitar. Jason greeted me at the airport with a warm hug and a huge bouquet of red roses. Everything was moving really quickly now, and our fears silently lingered in the air. If this new love story didn’t work out, I was stuck in Maryland without a way of getting home, and Jason would be awkwardly stuck to host me indefinitely. I had no family or friends nearby on the East Coast that could rescue me if I needed a way out. Our entire relationship so far was founded on texts, phone calls, and video chats. How compatible would we be as partners? What would it be like living together? The risk we were taking was huge.

At 1 a.m. we pulled into the driveway of Jason’s countryside home.
“I’m home,” I whispered. “This is where I’m supposed to be.”
I surprised myself to hear those words escaping from my mouth. I suddenly started to cry. I set down my guitar and fell to the floor, my backpack still strapped on my back. I can only imagine how my loud unexpected sobs surprised Jason. He quietly laid on the floor next to me and said nothing. He was just there in full support, witnessing my tears. I reached out my hand, and he took it in his.

That was the first time we held hands.

We talked until the early hours. Before the sun rose, he leaned over and kissed me for the first time. To this day, we celebrate March 20th as our anniversary, our victorious day of courage. It is the day that Jason and I turned our backs on those long list of fears, trusted our intuition, and began our life together.

Jason and Emily, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are folk musicians, Jason Brown and Emily Potter, a guitar and piano duo living in Nottingham, outside of Baltimore. We came together in March 2020 when we fell in love and Emily moved from Utah to create a life with Jason and his two children in Maryland.

During our beginning months as a new couple, Jason and I began to define the musical dream we wanted to build together. Before we met, we both had experience performing in bars, restaurants, and festivals. We realized, however, that although providing music as entertainment was still very enjoyable together, we wanted to expand the dream to specifically serve fellow truth-seekers who know there is more to life than paying bills and conforming to societal expectations.

This is where we began to find our greatest purpose and fulfillment as musicians. Our songs offer our listeners “music medicine”, a phrase that clarifies how we choose to focus our intention to utilize our music as a healing tool. We have defined two intentions for our work:

1) In a world steeped in cynicism and hopelessness, we desire our songs to inspire a celebration of even the smallest joys that life has to offer
2) Where there is fear and self-limiting beliefs, our songs are a call to courageously live as our most sovereign and authentic selves

We write and perform original songs that contain these powerful messages of vulnerability and surrender. We are currently bringing our original songs to life in the recording studio and just released the single “Where it Leads”!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The idea of playing in a musical duo together wasn’t even in the top 10 reasons of why we fell in love. The heart to heart connection was always first. We both agreed from the very beginning that if either of us decided not to pursue music any longer, we wouldn’t let it shatter us as a couple.

As we continued to explore our musical compatibilities, however, we came to realize we both had hidden insecurities around being a musician. I felt strong as a singer, but I felt like I wasn’t good enough as a guitarist or pianist. Ironically, Jason felt strong as a guitarist, but weak in his confidence as a singer. It would have been easy for us both to stay stuck where we felt “not good enough”. Instead, we chose to expand the space we needed to feel safe and explore our musical weaknesses on a fun and loving playground. Jason was taking weekly vocal lessons, and I trekked into new territories on my instruments.
Creating our weaknesses into strengths takes resilience and patience, but we continue to feel excited about the progress we are making! Along the way, we celebrate the way we sound together. I love songs that highlight our strengths when I am belting out a song while Jason rocks a guitar lead. But I am especially proud of the songs where I challenge myself on a piano instrumental solo, and Jason portrays his vocal confidence. We recently released Jason’s original song “Where it Leads”, which we feel acts as a milestone to show us how far we’ve both come!

We identify with the phrase “folk music medicine” as the gift we offer our audiences. Music is medicine, but we must first partake in our music medicine ourselves. We believe in what we have to offer together, so we are ready to admit our vulnerabilities, and do the work in overcoming any fears and insecurities, whatever it takes.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

From the beginning of our relationship, Jason and I have embraced sacred words and imagery that remind us of our divine royalty. I call him my king, and I am his queen. We carry this way of being from our partnership into our musical duo as well. Our mission, specifically in the music/storytelling ceremonies we offer, is to empower our audiences to courageously unveil their divine selves. By sharing our own story, we hope to connect with others who are also discovering the kings and queens they are. We feel that acknowledging the divinity in me and in you is the key to deepening and strengthening authentic relationships. It’s the journey that drives us as we empower humanity to remember who we truly are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jasonandemily.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason.and.emily
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonandemily
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jasonandemily
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonandemily
• Other: “Where it Leads” on Spotify

  https://open.spotify.com/track/5KJ8us8EgloODTJFb0q5e3

Image Credits

Lauren Mudrock
Jeremy Brown