Quick Facts
Biography
Eli "Paperboy" Reed (born Eli Husock) is an American singer and songwriter. After graduating from Brookline [Massachusetts] High School in 2002 he moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi and immersed himself in the juke joint culture of the Deep South. After spending a year in Clarksdale he enrolled at The University of Chicago to study sociology. While in Chicago he hosted a radio show called "We Got More Soul" on the college station WHPK and played organ and piano in the South Side Chicago church of the famed Soul/Gospel singer Mitty Collier. After one year of study in Chicago he returned home to Boston to focus on music, recording his first album Sings Walkin' & Talkin' & Other Smash Hits!
The local success of that album and his frenzied live show brought him to the attention of Somerville, Massachusetts based record label, Q Division Records. He recorded his first album of original material, Roll With You, in late 2007 with Q Division producer Ed Valauskas at the helm. That album was released in 2008 and the next two years saw Reed garner a national and international following. His success overseas in particular sparked his signing to Virgin before later switching to their parent label Capitol Records in 2009.
Come And Get It!, Reed's major label debut, was produced by Mike Elizondo. Speaking in March 2010 to British soul writer Pete Lewis, Reed stated the album was strongly influenced musically by the late 1960s/early 1970s Chicago soul music recordings of artists such as Tyrone Davis and Mel & Tim.
Reed was nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2009 MOJO Awards.
Reed signed to Warner Bros. Records in late 2012 and released a 45 RPM single featuring a vinyl only version of a new song, "WooHoo", on Record Store Day (April 20) 2013. His fourth album was released in 2014, and My Way Home followed in 2016.
Reed's song "Your Sins Will Find You Out" was featured in Episode 4 of the first season of "Preacher."
Discography
- Sings "Walkin' and Talkin' for My Baby" and Other Smash Hits! (Double E Records, 2005)
- Roll with You (Q Division Records, 2008)
- Come and Get It! (Capitol Records, 2010)
- Nights Like This (Warner Bros., 2014)
- My Way Home (Yep Roc, 2016)