Full Circle: Eden Brent Wins the Koko Taylor Award
Growing up in Greenville, Mississippi, Eden caught Koko Taylor’s sets at the Greenville Blues Festival more times than she can count. Standing on the Memphis stage decades later, accepting an award bearing Koko’s name, she described her gratitude at the full-circle moment. Plenty of artists win trophies; not many of them get to close a loop that started in their own hometown.
It’s the latest chapter in a remarkable stretch. Last year, Eden took home the Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist — Piano (Pinetop Perkins Piano Player), and her track “Watch the World Go By” from Getaway Blues earned a Blues Song of the Year nomination. Getaway Blues (“laid down in London, mixed up in Memphis, made in Mississippi”) remains the record powering this run of recognition, and Living Blues caught its essence:
“Refined blues, heartfelt and passionate… has true soul and in spots is outright sensual. Eden Brent is on fire.” —Living Blues
Listen to “What You Want,” the New Orleans-channeling, 88s-rollicking gem from Getaway Blues while we congratulate Eden!
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Acoustic blues masters Guy Davis, Corey Harris, and Alvin Youngblood Hart reunite to summon ancestral spirits with songs both long remembered and newly created — proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that African American blues remains as vital and vibrant as ever.
"The blues, in their hands, still breathes, still sweats, still testifies… A true traditional blues recording, an absolute masterpiece."Album of the Day
Eclectic pianist Eden Brent traveled downriver from her home in Greenville, MS to New Orleans in a quest to broaden her sound. Working with legendary bassist George Porter, Jr., she and producer Colin Linden injected her gritty, rootsy music with spicy elements that earmark the unmistakable Crescent City sound. The triumphant result was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition and nominated as "Album of the Year" by the Blues Music Awards.
"Like Norah Jones' best songs, Brent's original compositions sound like they've always existed without sounding like every song you've ever heard."