There’s a certain sweet irony to Eli Paperboy Reed writing a song that sounds like something he might’ve written for Swamp Dogg—only to wind up singing it with the man himself.
“When I first played him the demo, the smile that came across his face showed me I nailed the funny, irreverent nature of his writing,” says Reed.
Even so, “One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure)” almost didn’t make the cut on Reed’s new Getting There, out tomorrow on Yep Roc. But the album’s producer also happened to be Swamp Dogg, and he insisted otherwise. And though the Southern soul maverick’s reputation for irreverence is well-established, Swamp Dogg wound up being an ideal facilitator for a collection of songs Reed has dubbed “grown folks music,” with their serious, straight-up themes of commitment and compromise.
When Reed was assembling the material for his ninth studio release, Swamp Dogg was his first choice. Never mind that the 84-year-old R&B eccentric hadn’t produced another artist in more than three decades. After pre-production in Los Angeles, the two friends headed to Restoration Sound in Brooklyn, where Reed and his band tracked most of Getting There live over 10 days. Swamp Dogg also played piano on the sessions.
As a teenager, Reed moved from his home state of Massachusetts to Mississippi, immersing himself in Delta juke-joint culture as a primer to his work with gospel singer Mitty Collier in Chicago. Reed hears something in “One Man’s Trash” that takes him back to those formative years.
“It’s the kind of song I could’ve imagined hearing on the jukebox at Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale,” says Reed. “They called that grown-folks music, too. A different kind maybe, but grown-folks music nonetheless.”
We’re proud to premiere Eli Paperboy Reed’s “One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure).”
—Hobart Rowland
See Eli Paperboy Reed live.
