Currently in the middle of a UK tour, Eli has recorded this great cover version of Alicia Keys’ ‘No One’ at London’s legendary 100 Club venue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwZDriiXwk.

Also check out this acoustic version of his current single ‘Come And Get It’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIACIemtzEw.

Following his UK dates Eli has three gigs in Spain before he returns home for a string of US dates. Full details are on his website.

A blast of soulful exuberance, the song harks back to the classic sounds of 60s Motown and Stax. Watch the video here:

Eli is currently touring across Europe. He is currently in Germany, will pass through the Netherlands later this week before hitting the UK for a tour starting at London’s Scala on May 10, the day his album gets its UK release. Full details of his tour dates can be found on his website.

And as a taster of the album, you can get a free download of the closing track ‘Explosion’ from here: http://elipaperboyreed.com/uk/

The New York Times has noted Reed’s “raucous, riveting live act,” and he will be taking his electrifying show on the road once again this summer. Reed has announced extensive tour dates throughout Europe and the U.S. leading up to the album’s release. His run of U.S. dates in June will be bookended by shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with a homecoming show in Boston, as well as stops in Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington DC. See full dates below.

“It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure,” says Reed, looking back at the incredible journey that took the 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, a historic label with a rich R&B legacy.

On 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. Admirers have likened him 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.

“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. I can’t sing or write any other way than I do.”

Check out what the critics have said about Eli “Paperboy” Reed:

“There are singers who sing, then there are singers whose sheer power of expression can knock you off your feet. Eli “Paperboy” Reed falls firmly into the latter category.”

—MOJO

“…a soul singer who conquered both street corners and punk clubs with a mix of grooved-out rave-ups and slow-burning ballads.”

—ROLLING STONE

“Mr. Reed invokes the stylish and muscular R&B of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke with convincing suavity.”

—THE NEW YORK TIMES

“…blue-eyed soul virtuoso Eli “Paperboy” Reed…croons with tear-jerking tenderness, and turns clichés into bittersweet truths about the illusory nature of love.”

—NPR

Check out an acoustic version of the title track here:

Next month Eli kicks off a European tour that will take him through Germany, France, Netherlands, UK, Ireland and Spain. Details are on his website.

For a taster of the new album, here’s Reed and his band rehearsing ‘You Can Run On’ from ‘Come And Get It’ just before they went on stage at the Actual Festival in Logrono, Spain: http://www.youtube.com/user/elipaperboyreed#p/a/u/0/-BklQDt8–A

Reed released two albums and a nomination for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2009 Mojo Awards before signing to EMI’s Capitol Records in Los Angeles. “Paperboy” is the nickname he was given while he played the various juke joints and lounges in Clarkesdale in Mississippi after he left school. He used to wear a hat, now retired, that belonged to his grandfather – a newsboy’s hat in fact.

His voice has been compared to the likes of Sam Cooke, Al Greet and Otis Redding among others, and his mix of classic R&B, blues and soul is highly infective, as he showed on this performance of ‘Take My Love With You’ on Later With Jools Holland: