Eden’s Embrace vision and journey
"As a folk/soul artist embraces influences from different cultures, the resulting music demonstrates the beauty of coming together. Lyrical storytelling guides a journey through the wilderness, where love makes all the difference."
Home
Love Can Make a Way
Heartbeat
Baggage
Above the Clouds
Legacy of Love
I Choose
Eden's Embrace now available for physical CD purchase or digital download here ...and everywhere music is sold.
Thank you for listening, encouraging, sharing, and growing along with me.
Let’s show the world together what it means to embrace like Eden.
With love, hope, and compassion,
Stefanie Potter
The Purpose
I was asked recently by a new friend what my goal is for this CD: Is it to get a recording contract, etc.? Though that might be sweet... that's not even on my radar.
My goal is to make good creative music that comes from the heart, that others might enjoy and find some light in; It's to engage with (and re-create) culture in a creative form that I've come to love.
I wrote my first song when I was 6. I first recorded an original song when I was 17. Since then I've just kept writing and sharing. I process life this way. 5 CDs later, I still love the creative process. There's something beautiful about re-creating with God, about exploring different sounds and how they connect, about saying something I think is worthwhile.
Over the years, I wrote real-life-story-filled songs about the true meaning of love amidst hardship; Songs about welcoming, listening, and coming alongside each other no matter the differences. I believe these songs are worth investing in, to do what they were meant to do.
This CD took me longer and involved more people than any of my former projects. The production value is about 7 steps higher than my other solo EP. The creative process was so interesting to me, and the results are unlike what (my sister and) I have put out before. I wanted to make these songs the BEST we possibly could (within our constraints), because I believe they are worth it... YOU are worth it. The beauty in the message (LOVE) should be matched by the beauty of the music. We are so excited for you to hear it!
The Vision
All right... so I've got this beautiful new CD, a sweet new website that describes all the stuff I've been working on... My name is everywhere on it. 🤔 It may look like I'm trying to build my own little kingdom. To clarify: *It's not about me.* This is just how I've been investing in the gifts I've been given to impact the world around me. Gifts of music, time, funding, community... I'm just an artist with a vision to gather people together to help us all do life a bit more beautifully. To pour out wisdom that's been poured into me, for the benefit of others. At our release party, I didn't want to celebrate me or my music, but to celebrate this community coming together to make something beautiful. I know plenty of musicians who are much more talented than me. Some of them joined in this last project. I just like to write music... and God said we can do something with that. Something bigger than me. Something that demonstrates a beauty beyond our default way of living. Something of a King and a Kingdom and living how we were meant to live. I play for an audience of one. And if someone else happens to enjoy what I'm doing along the way... that's beautiful.
The Journey
I wrote “Home” in college (before all those songs with likeminded lyrics). The rest were written since Shifting Winds. I knew these songs were worth investing in to bring to the world in a beautiful form.
I took a few years to earn the funds to record again. Then when I had the funds, I didn’t have the time because of working full time. When I left my job due to a work injury, I knew it was time. We took a few months to solidify the cello parts.
We first hit “record” in January of 2019, at my friend Darren’s house. I didn’t feel good enough to even create the level of album I was hoping for, but just kept believing that "Love can make a way:” If God led me to it, He will lead me through it!
A few songs in and we realized Darren didn’t have the time needed to finish the album. So I switched to Anchor + Pine Studio, and invited Brian Jarvis to produce as he recorded. (This is the first time I’ve had a producer!) The collaborative creative process was SO interesting to me! Brian helped me take the music parts in my mind and bring it to the next level for people to enjoy.
I knew I wanted to invite people in to this project, embracing the message of the album. Along with my sister and husband, I am so grateful some friends stepped up. I also ended up needing to hire a couple studio musicians.
We also had to live my lyrics in working around people’s lives, from a place of love over production. We put the project on hold so I could go home to Rochester to be with my family and help care for my Grandpa as he was dying. We worked around my cellist’s daughter struggling, my cellist moving across the country, my drummer’s grandpa dying, and my sister adopting her second son from South Korea. Love took precedence in each of these things.
Little things also got in the way, like Darren’s dog getting hurt, lightning hitting a tree at Darren’s which kept him from being able to transfer files to Brian quickly, a power outage while I was in the studio, Brian’s wife locking her keys in her car, Juston being a stand-up go-to busy guy that meant he was squeezing in this project late hours as he had time… I’m sure there were more instances that I can’t remember.
But as I responded in love, and knew my heart in this CD was also love, I kept believing that LOVE CAN MAKE A WAY… and He did!
It Takes a Village
#ItTakesAVillage 🤝 👣...to release a CD. 🎵💗
This is more than just music. It's a labor of love, 💝an act of worship and beauty amidst pain, 🎨a re-creation of culture, 🌎a light in the darkness. 🕯️#mayitbeso
Going into this I knew it couldn’t be just a “me” project. I needed to embrace the visions, sounds, and contributions of other people… to do this CD in the way of the message of the CD: embrace.
Eden’s Embrace
Songwriting: Stefanie Ann Potter (ASCAP)
Publishing: Stefanie Potter Music (ASCAP)
Recording, Mixing, & Producing: Brian Jarvis, Anchor + Pine Studio (Hanahan, SC)
Mastering: Eric Stair
Cover Art
Photography: Becky Hall
Art, Logo, & Design: Leah Giorlando
Musicians
Stefanie Potter: acoustic guitar, vocals, glockenspiel, kalimba
Christopher Potter: bass, vocals
Amanda Gibson: percussion, vocals
Brian Jarvis: electric guitars
Quinn McDonald: drums
Juston Brown: keyboard, organ
Jonathan Lovett: keyboard, organ
Austin Fitzhenry: cello
Darren McLean: initial recording
This is 12 of the people that helped make it happen. 💯 #creditspage This list doesn't even include everyone. There's Sandy Yang who helped create the cello concepts and recorded the scratch tracks. There's the spouses (Vernita, Phillip, Karen, Josh, Darrell) who gave up time with their husbands/wives so he/she could create with this team. There's my guitar students and gig bookers who helped provide the funding. There's all of you who have invested into my music-making over the years, and encouraged me along the way. And there's a whole lot of Jesus involved. ✨
To all of you, I say, thank you. This was truly a community effort, and a beautiful thing came to life because of it. 🌳 Join me in asking God to bless this creation, that it would go forth and multiply the beauty of love in the world. 💞
The Heartbeat
The door is open for us. My door is open for you.
"And the Lord God planted a garden...
The Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,...
A river flows out of Eden...
It is not good that the man should be alone...
And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."
(Beauty found in excerpts from Genesis 2:8-25, NRSV)
💓Heartbeat of the music.
Press Coverage
Thank you to Moultrie News, Charleston Grit, Holy City Sinner, and The Post and Courier’s Charleston Scene for covering the release!
The Party
We are BLOWN AWAY by the outpouring of support at the release party! 😀 I am so grateful for each one of you that came and made it such a sweet time of connection, together living out the whole concept of the CD. Let's shine that light, friends. ⛅️🌤️
Thank you to Pawleys Island Brewing for hosting this event. Ya'll were such gracious hosts! #gobuytheirbeer
Special thanks our incredible musicians: my hubby (who does more than I can describe here), Quinn McDonald (who made the drive from Greenville to join in), Darren McLean (who did SO much to help make this happen!), Amanda Gibson (who did Mom-life and drummer-life at the same time like a pro), and Juston Brown, David Ziegenfuss, & Ryan Kelley (who all took time away from family to do this and made the music sound SO much better!). I so appreciate your sacrifices to help this vision come to life so beautifully. What a joy and honor to create music with each one of you... and as a team, that was pretty sweet. ❤️
We really have an incredible family here. Love ya'll.
VIDEO CLIPS FROM THE PARTY: If you missed the release party, I uploaded a sweet video with some highlights of the fun! 📽️ Includes short clips of songs played (with full party band of 8 musicians! 🙌), fun and encouraging stories behind the music 💝, and a little bit about the heart behind and process of releasing Eden's Embrace. 🎤 I LOVE how this concert reflected the whole idea behind the CD -- that of people coming together and embracing each other as originally intended. 💞Some beautiful things happened that day, and I know it's only the beginning of this CD's inspiration.
SONG VIDEOS FROM THE PARTY: These are full-band 🙌and full-fun. 😃💃I fully endorse a dance party at home while watching these! Tag me in it if you do so I can join in. 😉 Grateful for the friends who came together on leap day to take this music to the next level and made it such a blast! 🎶
Why not Streaming?
I've been asked a lot if Eden's Embrace is on streaming services (like Spotify). (It's ok, I get it. 😉Maybe I'm holding onto the past for too long, but let me have just this one! haha)
(TLDR: Even if you don't love my type of music but you love what I'm doing, I appreciate the support and investment into my work by downloading it! You might enjoy it more than you think!)
Real Talk: 😘#musicindustryeducation
- I am an independent artist and small business owner. I don't have a company promoting it for me. Everywhere the music goes is because God opens a door. 🗝️
- Spotify pays an artist less than a penny per stream. 👎
- I've spent 4 years preparing, earning, and saving to record again. 📈
- With the higher production value of this CD came a much higher cost. The investment was everything. 📉
- It took over a year to record and release this CD. ⏳
- As an independent local artist, I don't currently have a HUGE following to count on to stream enough to make up the cost of offering it for free on streaming platforms. (It would take at minimum ~275 streams to make up for the purchase of one song by one person.) 🤷
- I have a good amount of listeners that I believe value what I'm (we're) creating enough to pay a little bit for it. 💝
- If you're one of them, thank you for spending the $9 so I can make up for some of the investment, and share the music further than I could otherwise. 😉👍🎵❤️🌎
I sooo appreciate the shares you've done too! Amidst a world full of fear, let's get this message of love and "embrace" out into the world, shifting culture all around us! Music and art gets to the heart so much stronger than words alone. 💓
If you haven't heard it yet, you can download it (or order a CD) at www.stefaniepotter.com/merch ...I'd love to hear what ya think! 😀