Blues lady Eden Brent is a modern-day piano-pounding, juke-joint hollering powerhouse of American music. A legendary performer and southern songwriter, she spent the first two decades of her career under the tutelage of Abie “Boogaloo” Ames, before winning the Blues Foundation’s Blues Challenge and bouncing onto the international scene. Since then she lands steady honors, three Blues Music Awards among them. Her new album Getaway Blues presents nine original songs recorded in London with a four-piece band and will be officially released June 21st. Laid down in London. Mixed up in Memphis. Made in Mississippi.
Eden was born into a family of riverboat captains and guitar pickers in the river port of Greenville, the largest town in the Mississippi Delta, renowned for its literary history. Eden’s own story could have been written by Eudora Welty or Tennessee Williams, or any number of Mississippi’s colorful authors. By the time she was old enough to drive, she christened the M/V Eden Brent, a working towboat built by her family’s river transportation company. The Greenville Bridge bears the name of her grandfather Capt. Jesse who was dubbed “Riverman of the Century” by the Waterways Journal. Her father Capt. Howard, famous for his Hank Williams renditions and grand story-telling, received the “River Legend Award” by the Seaman’s Church Institute who also named a riverboat training simulator in his honor. Mother Carole was a sharecropper turned fashion model, big band singer and “Miss Ace Records” who landed on the cover of True Detective magazine and worked at Chicago’s famed Chez Paris where she encountered Boogaloo’s friend Nat King Cole and members of the Rat Pack. Both of Eden’s parents met Elvis Presley, her father in 1955 and her mother in 1956. The Brent household overflowed with music on reel-to-reel and vinyl, all played on a Hi-Fi that was formerly owned by Jerry Lee Lewis and later auctioned by the IRS where the Brents bought it. Suppertime sparked entertainment hour with regular family sing-a-longs. Author Julia Reed remembers the home as “a soulful and far funnier version of ‘The Sound of Music,’” and refers to the family as the “von Brents.”
Today Glide is excited to premiere the standout track “You On My Mind,” a slow and twangy number that finds Brent tapping into her country side while not losing her soulful, bluesy vocal touch. Moving along with grace and class, the song gives Brent that chance to really showcase her vocals in a way that feels as suited for serenading a big audience or playing to slow dancers at a honky tonk. It also features excellent guitar work that gives the song a dreamy, reflective quality.
Brent describes the inspiration behind the song:
“Bob wrote this song, and I’ve always wanted to record it. I remember when he was writing it, and we talked about how the best songs are the simple ones that are able to convey really deep emotions with simplicity. Hank Williams was a master of that simple yet profound songwriting, and ‘You on my Mind’ feels that way to me, too, simple yet profound. I cried the four times I sang this in the studio, both in London and in Memphis, but it is not a sad song. On the contrary, it is a happy song, but it is very moving when I sing it.”
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