Eli "Paperboy" Reed

• Eli "Paperboy" Reed Sings . . . "Walkin' and Talkin'" (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) [Yep Roc, 2025] A−

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Eli "Paperboy" Reed Sings . . . "Walkin' and Talkin'" (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) [Yep Roc, 2025]
The first dozen tracks identical to those this Massachusetts Yankee then surnamed Husock shopped as a Brookline High School grad who'd woodshedded in Mississippi, stopped off to study sociology at the University of Chicago, and then returned to Boston with an eye to storming the music business on a team of 12 committed soul-blues winners I figure you've never heard of because they weren't in my recall memory either: "Walkin' and Talkin' (For My Baby)," "I Just Got to Know," "The Tips of My Fingers," "Fat Mama Rumble," no not the Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down," and I could go on because 20 years later Reed definitely is. He didn't conquer the music business, obviously. But one way or another he's made a likable career of it, and to brag a little he starts off with those obscurities and adds 15 more, some borrowed from the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, James Cotton, and the Five Royales, others previously unknown to me, with just about every one worth your time. Vocally he's a little more polished here, emotionally a little more congenial. Either way he's likable and committed to his roots aesthetic. There isn't a dud in the bunch. A−