QUINN SULLIVAN CRUISES
‘MIDNIGHT HIGHWAY’ IN
THE STUDIO AND ON THE ROAD
Provogue / Mascot Label Group
Debut Hits Retail January 27, 2017
Provogue
/ Mascot Label Group has announced the release of Quinn Sullivan’s Midnight
Highway on January 27, 2017. Sullivan has been a music professional for
more than 75 percent of his life. He’s shared the stage with Buddy Guy, Eric
Clapton, Los Lobos, The Roots, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi and Joe
Bonamassa, and he opened for B.B. King, who later invited him to play his
treasured “Lucille” guitar. He has performed on concert and festival dates
throughout the United States – including at storied venues like Hollywood Bowl,
RFK Stadium and Madison Square Garden – traveled overseas – performing at both
the Montreux Jazz Festival and India’s Mahindra Blues Festival – and played
several editions of the Experience Hendrix Tour, backed by Jimi’s original
bassist Billy Cox. He’s also appeared on national TV, with guest
appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Oprah, Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon, Conan and twice on The Ellen DeGeneres show.
Yes,
Sullivan has packed some extraordinary experience into his decade-long career,
and that’s even more remarkable when you consider that he’s only 17. His third
studio album, Midnight Highway, was produced by multi GRAMMY® winner Tom
Hambridge - who also does double duty as Quinn’s studio and road drummer - and
will be released on January 27th in North America, and on March 24th in the
rest of the world. The album is yet another milestone in Quinn's extraordinary
journey, which began with him jamming with the kids music combo Toe Jam Puppet
Band at age three, appearing on Ellen when he was six, and being taken under
the wing of blues legend Buddy Guy at age eight, whose protégé he remains to
this day.
Quinn’s
age and enduring relationship with Buddy Guy is certainly notable, but so too
is his total dedication to his craft. “I wanted to see how far we could get
musically on this album. I had a lot more creative input on this one and was
more active in writing, so it’s something of a mixture. I didn’t want to
completely break away from the blues - that’ll always be my home ground - but I
just wanted to stretch out. Mastering the vocals was important too and was the
result of a lot of playing and touring, and studying with a vocal coach.
I’ll admit I hit an awkward stage with my voice when it was changing a few
years ago, but I like the way things have worked out so far.”
Quinn
confides, “My major goal as an artist is to get into songwriting more,” and
he’s well on his way with Midnight Highway, for which he had a hand in writing
three of the stand-out tracks, “Eyes For You”, “Lifting Off” and “Going.”
One of the other songs that Quinn tackled is George Harrison’s “While My Guitar
Gently Weeps.” While Quinn will forever be rooted in the blues, he’s
extremely passionate about The Beatles, so every effort was made to replicate
the Harrison classic as faithfully as possible. Producer Tom Hambridge
remarked, “We really tried to make it sound like it was off the White Album, so
we researched everything about the track, where the mic placement should be,
how to get the organ to sound like the original. Quinn is such a huge Beatles
fan so, of course, he really loved the process.”
The
album was recorded primarily at Nashville’s prestigious Blackbird Studio with
some of the greatest players in Nashville, including many of the same musicians
who played on the Buddy Guy albums that Hambridge produced. These include
bassists Michael Rhodes and Tom Macdonald, guitarist Rob McNelley, and keyboard
player Reese Wynans, a veteran of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble.
Hambridge notes, “Quinn was anxious to make an album the way I make those Buddy
Guy albums, and he did, in fact, tear it up. Quinn felt the mojo and he
‘brought it’ in a big way.”
As a
young child, Quinn was brought to numerous festivals and concerts by his
music-loving parents. He was the “kid with the guitar “ in the audience,
who would strum along with what was happening on stage. Through videos,
Quinn became enamored with Buddy Guy, so his Dad made arrangements for
him to meet his idol when Guy came to his hometown. Backstage before the
show, he asked Buddy to autograph his guitar which, of course, he did — but on
condition that the boy play it for him. That led to Buddy calling Quinn
onstage to join him during his set and an unlikely, though solid bond was then
formed between the great Chicago bluesman and the eager youngster from
Massachusetts.
Tom
Hambridge calls Quinn “a sponge who soaks up everything that’s around him,”
adding, “he’s listening all the time and he just so happens to be around great
artists. Every time he plays, it’s a little deeper. Buddy Guy is, of
course, his mentor, so he channels Buddy’s over-the-top reckless abandon.” That’s
completely understandable, as Buddy has, more than once, advised Quinn, “Just
go out there and show them why you’re here… make them remember you.”
Off
stage, Quinn is well aware of the unique opportunity he’s been afforded and is
focused on music as an ongoing pursuit. He contrasts his experience with
many of his contemporaries’ - “They’re struggling to come up with what they’re
going to do when they’re out of school, but I’ve decided this is what I’m going
to be doing for the rest of my life."
The
track listing is: “Something For Me,” “Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming,” “Midnight
Highway,” “Crazy Into You,” “Eyes For You,” “Lifting Up,” “She Gets Me,”
“Rocks,” “Going,” “Graveyard Stone,” “Big Sky,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,”
“Buffalo Nickel.”
