REED & TRUE LOVES, ELI "PAPERBOY"

Roll With You is a vital, gospel-tinged mix of sweaty, up-tempo numbers and aching, lovelorn ballads — all originals — that connect instantly thanks to the passion of this young performer and his equally young band. The True Loves may employ classic soul stylings — such as anguished vocals and a raucous horn section — but they make the music their own by performing it with the youthful abandon that only a group of seven talented guys in their ’20s can muster.

Reed, a 24-year-old native of Brookline, MA, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the soul music's history,eed grew up listening to his music critic father’s collection of gospel, blues, country, soul, and R&B records and eventually taught himself to play guitar, piano, and harmonica. Then, at age 18, he got a first-hand education when he moved to Clarksdale, MS, one of the birthplaces of the blues, in the North Mississippi Delta, where he sang and played guitar with various soul, R&B, and blues bands at local clubs, and received informal lessons in performing from legendary blues drummer Sam Carr. After spending nine months in Mississippi, Reed enrolled at the University of Chicago and got himself a gig singing and playing piano on the city’s South Side at a church run by former Chess Records’ soul singer-turnedminister Mitty Collier, using the $50 a week he earned to buy records for his college radio show.

In 2004, after a year of school, Reed returned to Boston and began to assemble the True Loves, which has undergone several line-up changes in the last three years, but now features Mike Montgomery (bass), Ryan Spraker (guitar), Paul Jones (tenor sax), Ben Jaffe (tenor sax), Patriq Moody (trumpet), and Andy Bauer (drums). The band's live show is already legendary.

The album delivers from start to finish from the lead-off barnstormer “Stake Your Claim,” to the swaggering “The Satisfier,” to the dance-floor clarion call “(Doin’ the) Boom Boom” to the gospel shuffle of “Take My Love,” through to the longing ballads “(Am I Just) Fooling Myself” and “It’s Easier.”

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