“I honor Mississippi in my playing without trying because that’s the sound I’ve played all these years—it is my sound.” That’s Delta pianist and songwriter Eden Brent, a born-and-raised Mississippian devoted to the time-honored form of the blues. “I like to take a little piece of it with me wherever I go, then bring it on home.” In the case of her new album, Getaway Blues, Brent took that little piece of herself all the way to London to record with some of the UK’s best studio musicians.
While the locale may seem a far cry from the Magnolia State, England was the perfect choice for Eden, who got the idea when she and her husband, British jazz trombonist/arranger Bob Dowell, attended a party in London, his hometown. “Bob lived there all his life till he moved to Mississippi with me,” says Eden. “And he knows some of the finest musicians who live in London. I thought, ‘Well let’s make a record while we’re there.’” Produced and largely co-written by Dowell, Getaway Blues also symbolizes for Eden the musical union she and her husband have forged from countries across the pond.
Getaway Blues continues the success that has earned Brent a loyal following plus awards and accolades galore, including three Blues Music Award wins, a prestigious Mississippi Arts Commission Folk Arts Fellowship, winner of the International Blues Challenge, a featured performer on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and a million streams for her classic-in-the-making original, “Better This Way.”
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Today, Brent shared the first single from Getaway Blues, the honky-tonking, album-opening title track. “Blues shuffles are a favorite, but they can be a bit ordinary,” says Brent. “Yet this train-like piano motif elevates this one to memorable.” While Brent holds a degree in music theory from the venerable University of North Texas, she owes much of her keyboard prowess to the tutelage of Abie “Boogaloo” Ames, her local piano master, mentor for nearly twenty years, and in Brent’s words, “the only person I really ever tried to mimic.” “Getaway Blues” makes it clear thatBrent still draws inspiration from Ames; a rollicking piano shuffle taking listeners straight back to the Mississippi Delta from which both Ames and Brent hail.
Fans can get their first taste of Brent’s new album by listening to “Getaway Blues” today at this link. Getaway Blues, out June 21st on Yellow Dog Records, can be pre-ordered or pre-saved ahead of its release right here. Brent will take the stage at the prestigious New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 2nd and even more tour dates can be found at edenbrent.com/tour-dates.
Behind The Recording Of Getaway Blues: The recording facility that Brent and Dowell found for the project, Fish Factory Studio, was suitably funky and led to some of the quickest tracking Eden has ever done. “They saycleanliness is next to Godliness,” says Eden. “And I’m no saint! Most of the studios that I’ve felt comfortable in were like Piety Street in New Orleans [where she made Ain’t Got No Troubles]. Real lived in. That’s the way this place was. It used to be a fish factory! It felt real cozy…We knocked it out in two days!”
Back in the States, Grammy-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang gave the record a Memphis mix, one as down to earth as the sessions. “We did something that you can easily take on the road,” says Eden with pride. “What you hear is what you’re gonna get.”
More About Eden Brent: Mississippi Delta native Eden Brent is a modern-day piano-pounding, juke-joint hollering powerhouse of American music. A legendaryperformer 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 has accrued awards and accolades galore, including three Blues Music Award wins, a prestigious Mississippi Arts Commission Folk Arts Fellowship, a featured performance on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and a million streams for her classic-in-the-making original, “Better
This Way.” A performer at heart, Eden plays clubs, concerts and festivals like the down-home Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale and the epic New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She travels to faraway events like Blues in Hell, Norway and Sighisoara Blues Festival in Romania. She frequently hosts the Piano Bar aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise and is the featured guest at Viking Mississippi River Cruises dock parties, appearances recalling her river roots. Her new album Getaway Blues, a collaboration with her UK-born life and musical partner Bob Dowell, presents nine original songs recorded in London with a four-piece band and will be officially released June 21st, 2024 by Yellow Dog Records. Laid down in London. Mixed up in Memphis (by Matt Ross-Spang).Made in Mississippi.
More About Yellow Dog Records: Yellow Dog Records was founded in 2002 in Memphis, TN, with the goal of cultivating the American musical heritage. The label features artists who emphasize innovative approaches to authentic American musical roots traditions — blues, jazz, soul, Americana, and folk styles. By providing support for recording, production, promotion and distribution, Yellow Dog Records brings this vital music to new and wider audiences. Yellow Dog albums and artists have been nominated for over forty Blues Music Awards andIndependent Music Awards, and in 2016 the label was recognized with the Keeping the Blues Alive award, the Blues Foundation’s highest honor for “individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to blues music”.
