The state of old school soul is alive and well. Living in Indianapolis and being a fan of Tad Robinson, this is a no-brainer statement. But there’s a new act coming to town that has soul, knows soul and is soul: Eli “Paperboy” Reed & The True Loves.

Reed is 24 year-old (stay with me) from Massachusetts whose father is a music critic. He devoured blues, soul, R&B and gospel records and taught himself guitar, harmonica and piano. By 16, Reed was performing in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, busking on guitar and harmonica with a friend on drums and washboard. He moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi at age 18 and dove headfirst into the blues. At the close of this part of his journey, he’s assembled The True Loves, an eight-piece band that sounds straight out of 1965.

Their album Roll With You (Q Division) starts off with the high octane “Stake Your Claim,” a track that proves that the band knows its Stax and James Brown. Indeed, if you took the Stax house band and replaced guitarist Steve Cropper with a soulful garage rock guitarist, then you’ve got The True Loves. Through “It’s Easier,” “I’ll Roll With You,” “She Walks,” Won’t Give Up Without A Fight,” “(Doin’ The) Boom Boom,” one gold nugget follows another.

Reed belts his vocals with the proper amount of weight: no over-singing, no drawn out single-note holds. As for that nickname, Reed told Rolling Stone that “I lived in Mississippi for a while and in high school I had a newsboy hat that was my grandfather’s. Everyone’s got a nickname down there and people started calling me ‘Paperboy’ because of the hat.”