"It's been a wild ride, that's for sure," admits Eli "Paperboy" Reed, looking back at the incredible journey that took the boyish-looking yet preternaturally mature soul belter from a Boston high school band room to a Mississippi Delta juke joint, from Sunday morning gigs behind the organ at a tiny South Side Chicago church to headlining the coolest clubs in Brooklyn with his red-hot band, and now, signed to Capitol Records.
On his major label debut, Come and Get It, Reed proves to be the life of a soulful, sweaty party in which everyone eventually gets dragged onto the dance floor. As a performer, Reed approaches each song with nothing less than utter conviction; he's as authentically gritty as he is ingratiatingly sexy. Reed incorporates the feel of classic R&B and soul into a largely self-penned, 12-song set, produced with Mike Elizondo, the bassist-turned-producer whose credits include, among others, Eminem, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Fiona Apple. Admirers have likened Reed to such luminaries as Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett; the Boston Herald called him "Boston's answer to Sam Cooke." But he's not merely trying to recreate a sound; Reed is channeling his influences and inspirations into making something all his own.
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"For me," says Reed, "it's all about writing pop songs. Soul music was the greatest pop music of the 20th century and its influence is so far-reaching. When I pick up a guitar to write a song, the influence of the music I love invariably comes out. For me, that music has been completely internalized. I'm not trying to put anything on; this is what comes out, this is what happens, I can't sing or write any other way than I do."
