Brooke Eden turns 'Daddy's Money' into calling card

Every couple weeks, Eden would fly home for two weeks. And when she came back, she had the money to pay the rent and other expenses of living in Music City. Aside from playing gigs in a handful of Nashville clubs and writing songs, Eden didn’t really have a steady 9-to-5 gig.

“She said she never saw me work. I had a lot of jobs throughout my life, but once I graduated from college I decided I wasn’t going to work on anything other than music,” the 26-year-old University of Florida alum said. “I figured out a way to make money by doing music, and that’s it. I spent two weeks in Nashville writing and networking and then I would fly down to Florida and spend two weeks there performing and making money.”

Her friend didn’t realize that Eden was working during her home visits.

“She thought I had daddy’s money and kind of slipped it into my bank account at the end of every month,” Eden said. “I was like, ‘Girl, I ain’t never had daddy’s money. I work for my money’.”

The friend, songwriter Kallie North, was inspired, and with songwriter Jessy Wilson penned what has become Eden’s debut national single.

“Daddy’s Money” is one of seven songs Eden has already recorded for her debut album, which she hopes will drop later this year on Broken Bow Records imprint Red Bow Records.

Expect to hear all of the songs when Eden opens Country Thunder 2016 next Thursday in Florence. She is the very first artist to go on stage for the four-day festival April 7-10 headlined by Florida Georgia Line and Eric Church.

“I am so excited,” Eden said during a phone interview on the day before she left for the Country2Country music festival in London, England, early this month. “Along with being an artist I’m a huge country music fan. Getting to see all these other artists I respect so much playing their stuff is one of the perks of being in this genre.”

Eden has been pursuing her music career since she was a kid and stepped on stage with her dad’s country band in Florida. In 2012, her career got a major boost when she won a Facebook contest to sing “Baby Girl” with Sugarland in Florida.

“That was an awesome moment for my career,” Eden said, recalling how Jennifer Nettles turned the mic over to Eden and let her sing the whole song. “They were like, ‘Go free spirit.’ OK.”

“I was only supposed to sing a verse and a chorus. At the end, I looked over at Jennifer and she looked at me and said, ‘Get it girl’. ”

A YouTube video of that performance attracted the attention of Broken Bow, whose roster includes Jason Aldean and Dustin Lynch and fellow newcomer Chase Bryant, who will be on the Country Thunder stage a few hours after Eden on April 7.

Eden describes her music as country rock/soul: “It’s almost like if you mixed Jason Aldean and Adele,” she said. “Interesting combo.”

“I’m an open book and my songs are pieces of me,” she said. “You may not know me yet, but you get to hear songs that nobody’s heard yet, songs that will be on my album. If you like them, let me know. Hopefully by the end they will know me just by hearing my songs.”