Eli Paperboy Reed grew up immersed in the country music of his father’s extensive record collection, learning names like George Jones and Waylon Jennings. Among all the albums, one artist stood out: the outlaw Merle Haggard. “He could get to the heart of these extraordinarily complicated emotional sentiments in two-and-a-half minutes, and that was something that really stuck with me as I began to find my own path as a songwriter,” says Reed. “Mama Tried” is the first single from Reed’s new tribute to Haggard called Down Every Road. It faithfully retains the original melody and even much of the personality of the 1968 hit, but Reed ups the pace with his own take on Memphis soul and gives it a modern rendering you could almost imagine Haggard delivering himself.
Down Every Road stems from an idea that Reed has contemplated since the earliest days of his career, setting Haggard favorites against the soul music that he’s become best-known for in his own celebrated work. Keeping almost all of the country legend’s original melodies and song structures intact, Reed brings fresh perspective by adding Pops Staples-inspired guitar, FAME production trademarks, Stax horns, ferociously cathartic vocals and organs conjuring Memphis soul. Ultimately, with this deferential but radically-reworked approach, he proves that the heart and guts and truth at the core of Merle Haggard’s songwriting defy genre altogether. Down Every Road comes out everywhere on April 29th.
