A soul-blues revivalist who isn't strictly a traditionalist,
Eli "Paperboy" Reed synthesized several strands of 1960s soul, marrying gritty Southern funk with gutsy Chicago blues. Although his 2008 breakthrough Roll with You was thoroughly steeped in retro sounds, a pair of major-label records -- 2010's
Come and Get It! and 2014's
Nights Like This -- proved that he could thread in such relatively modern elements as drum loops, and on 2019's
99 Cent Dreams, he invited rapper
Big Daddy Kane in for a verse. Such stylistic hybrids were a common theme in his catalog, also appearing on
Down Every Road, his soulful tribute to country legend
Merle Haggard.
Growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts,
Eli Reed was exposed to a variety of music. His father was a critic and lent his extensive record collection to his son, who soaked up as much as he could, gravitating toward gospel, soul, blues, and R&B albums. Teaching himself piano, guitar, and harmonica and busking in Harvard Square to practice his chops and performing skills, he found work in Clarksdale, Mississippi after finishing high school. Upon his arrival, however, he found that his job had fallen through, so he introduced himself to Clarksdale's music community, playing frequently at local clubs and even ending up under the tutelage of drummer
Sam Carr. It was in Mississippi that
Reed also got his nickname, "
Paperboy," thanks to the newsboy-styled hat he was wearing at the time, but after nine months, he moved north to attend the University of Chicago at his parents' behest. In Chicago,
Reed met soul singer
Mitty Collier, who'd had a hit in 1964 with the single "I Had a Talk with My Man" but had since turned to ministry. The young musician impressed her so much -- he auditioned on the piano in his dormitory -- that she asked him to be the Minister of Music at her church, a position he held until he returned to Boston after a year of school. Back home,
Reed worked on assembling his band, called
the True Loves, and in 2005 he self-released
Sings "Walkin' and Talkin' (For My Baby)" and Other Smash Hits, a collection of covers and originals. His band began to gain recognition around town, particularly thanks to
Reed's enthused and passionate singing, and a performance at 2007's SXSW attracted some label interest. Signed to Boston-based Q Division,
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves issued their second full-length, Roll with You (with all songs written or co-written by
Reed), in 2008.
Come and Get It, his first major-label album, was released two years later. Despite some good reviews,
Come and Get It didn't crack the Billboard 200 (it did reach 36 on R&B Albums), and in 2012,
Reed signed with Warner Bros. His first album for the label took a while to surface. For Record Store Day 2013, he released the 7" "Woo Hoo," which showcased a glitzy, modern direction for the soul singer. His 2014 record,
Nights Like This, showed this wasn't a one-off; the album, which appeared in the spring of 2014, found
Reed embracing a modern-soul direction reminiscent of
Mark Ronson's work with
Amy Winehouse.
Nights Like This didn't push
Reed into the mainstream so he parted ways with Warner and went back to the indies in 2016, signing with Yep Roc for the gospel-influenced
My Way Home.
Reed remained at Yep Roc for 2019's
99 Cent Dreams, an album recorded at the Sam Phillips Recording studio with producer
Matt Ross-Spang.
Reed returned in 2022 with
Down Every Road, a vibrant tribute to
Merle Haggard recorded live to tape with his supporting band and producer
Vince Chiarito. ~ Marisa Brown