Soul artist Eli Paperboy Reed has announced new collection Getting There which explores a “grown-up kind of love, contemplating what it takes for two people to go the distance through good times and bad.” It was Produced by R&B legend Swamp Dogg and arrives September 11, 2026, via Yep Roc Records.
The album blends genres and is an “ode to the extraordinary endurance of the ordinary, everyday love that makes the world go around.”
Reed reflects:
This is grown folks music. I’m not 25 anymore, and I don’t want to make records that sound like I am. I want to make music that’s reflective not just of where I’ve been, but where I’m at right now.
Swamp Dogg shares:
I haven’t heard many white boys who can do what Eli does. We were on tour together in Spain the first time I heard him perform, and I said to myself, ‘Now that’s a singing motherf*cker right there.’
Reed has long been a fan of Swamp Dogg’s remarkable catalog as a producer, songwriter, and artist and over the course of a decade, the pair would share stages several times, always ending each performance with a duet on Swamp Dogg’s “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe.”
Reed comments on their process:
Sometimes we could get ahead of ourselves and overexcited, and Swamp would always pull things back and get us to chill out and let the song play itself. I did a bunch of the keyboards on this record, but we convinced Swamp to play some piano with us, too, because I just love his feel and his groove and his phrasing. He’d ease us into this perfect, lazy pocket every time.
ELI PAPERBOY REED TOUR DATES:
7/18 – Lichtenvoorde, NL – Zwarte Cross 2026
9/15 – Chattanooga, TN – WUTC / NPR
9/19 – Nashville, TN – The Grand Ole Opry
9/25 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
10/2: Boston, MA – Regattabar
10/3: Fall River, MA – Narrows Center for the Arts
11/6 – Sittard NL – Volt
11/7 – Groningen NL – Take Root Festival
11/8 – Breda NL – Mezz
3/9/27 – Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
3/10/27 – Nottingham, England – Metronome
3/11/27 – Bristol, England – The Fleece
3/12/27 – London, England – 229
[additional dates to be announced soon]
