Nicknamed "Little Boogaloo" by her Mississippi mentor Boogaloo Ames, Eden Brent is much more than her signature boogie-woogie piano and juke-joint blues holler. She is a celebrated songwriter and dynamic performer, with numerous nominations and awards including eleven Blues Music Award nominations since 2009 and three BMA trophies. Her most recent Yellow Dog Records album, Jigsaw Heart was nominated for BMA Acoustic Album of the Year, continuing a streak of nominations for her last three albums.
Born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in Greenville, to a family of riverboat captains and guitar pickers, Eden's story could’ve been written by Tennessee Williams or any number of Mississippi’s colorful authors. The Greenville bridge is named for her grandfather Jesse, the Waterways Journal "Riverman of the Century". Her father, Captain Howard, famous for his Hank Williams renditions and grand story-telling, is a bona-fide living "River Legend", and her mother Carole was born a sharecropper but became a big band singer and fashion model, working at Chicago’s Chez Paris in the 1950's.
A life-long piano enthusiast, Eden was surrounded by music and learned her first notes at age three. "Grandma could read and play beautifully," Eden explains, "She taught me Middle C and my first simple tunes. I had an ear for music and was pecking out my brother’s recital piece before I was old enough to go to school.” Piano lessons were part of her education from primary school through graduation from the University of North Texas and beyond. "I always loved to play, but I hated to read and I really hated practice until I started hanging around Boogaloo. He put the music right in my hands.” She continues, “Daddy jokes he could’ve saved a lot of money on my college tuition had he introduced me to Boogaloo a few years earlier.” The duo traveled and worked together for 16 years until Boogaloo's death in 2002.
Eden is featured in three documentary films: Boogaloo & Eden: Sustaining the Sound; Forty Days in the Delta; 180 Degrees: Changing Lives in the Mississippi Delta, has appeared in print publications like USA Today and Garden & Gun, has been highlighted on national radio broadcasts including NPR Weekend Edition, House of Blues Radio Hour, and American Routes, and her music continues to delight both critics and live audiences alike.
Since launching her career, Eden travels the United States and abroad performing in festivals like Notodden, the Chicago Blues Festival, Cognac's Blues Passions, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She's a frequent piano bar host aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise and has been a special guest aboard the American Queen Steamboat, a performance that celebrated her Mississippi River heritage.
She has released four solo albums: Something Cool 2003; Mississippi Number One 2008; Ain't Got No Troubles 2010; and Jigsaw Heart 2014, and is currently on the Yellow Dog Records label. In addition to her four solo albums, Eden recorded The Brent Sisters Party Dress with sisters Jessica and Bronwynne, also songwriters. Released in 2012, the album is a collection of songs written by their late mother, Carole Brent.
Eden lives in her hometown with her husband Bob Dowell, a musician and arranger from the U.K., and their three very naughty dogs.