Description
Yes, Quinn Sullivan has packed a lot of extraordinary experience into the span of his decade-long career and that’s even more remarkable when you consider that he only turned 17 this spring. ‘Midnight Highway,’ produced by multiple Grammy winner Tom Hambridge who also does double duty as Quinn’s studio and road drummer.
The album is yet another milestone in a pursuit that has seen Quinn jamming with kids music combo Toe Jam Puppet Band at the age of three, appearing on network television (Ellen, performing a Beatles-inspired version of “Twist and Shout”) when he was six and, at eight, being taken under the wing of blues legend Buddy Guy whose protégé he remains to this day.
The album was recorded primarily at Nashville’s prestigious Blackbird Studio with Quinn’s backing band including many of the same players who have recorded on the Buddy Guy albums that Hambridge has produced. These include bassist Michael Rhodes, guitarist Rob McNelley as well as Reese Wynans on keyboards, the latter a veteran of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble.
Producer/drummer 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.”
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, “Go for it; make them remember you.”
His hope is “to make a splash” with ‘Midnight Highway.’
“This one I really want to be taken seriously,” says the very poised and purposeful young musician. That’s our intention as well.
