The Paperboy Delivers

Monday night at the Speakeasy, Belfast and the audience is looking well pleased. There's not so many of them, but they must congratulate themselves on getting to see Eli 'Paperboy' Reed before his status rises sharply in 2009. Because judging by the records and the live show, he's the imperial soul-stirrer.

The voice is astounding. He gets the nuances, the pathos and the hurt of the classy crooners like Sam Cooke and Bobby Bland. He can do husky and abrupt like James Brown and he understands the theatre of Otis Redding. Behind him, there's a tremendous band, The True Loves and they work this Monday crowd with some style.

The cynics may say that he's merely retro, or slavishly hooked on the old Stax sound, and there's some grain of truth there. But you can't fake this kind of passionate immersion, this royally intense feeling. The Paperboy can deliver.