10 Year Old Quinn Sullivan's Got the Blues

There's an old joke that if you're a teenager you haven't lived enough to sing the blues. But lucky for Quinn Sullivan, he's just ten years old and recently completed a stunning blues set at Chicago's Lollapalooza festival.  And if that weren't enough, Chicago legend Buddy Guy joined him on stage.  As Sullivan writes in the Windy Citizen:

I actually played at Buddy’s club Legends the night before Lollapalooza. I got to do my whole set there with Tom Hambridge, who is working on my album and produced Buddy’s last CD Skin Deep, and his band The Rattlesnakes. They came in from Nashville to play with me Friday night and during my performance at Lollapalooza on Saturday, which was awesome. 
 

As soon as I went on stage at Lollapalooza, it started to get really, really crowded.  I was so happy that the crowd was huge; it was awesome.  Then, for my last song Buddy came up with me to jam a little bit and the crowd went wild!  It was great.

Sullivan also plays on Buddy Guy's recent Skin Deep album on the song "Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes?"

The good news is, we need more young kids playing the blues if it's to survive as an art form and not end up like jazz, an increasingly esoteric musical style with an aging demographic.  The bad news, if you're over 40, it might make you think about selling your axe and taking up golf.  I'll leave it to you to decide.

Coming up next: a review of Buddy Guy live at Montalvo, in Saratoga, California.  In the meantime, here's some footage from Lollapalooza.  

• Windy Citizen: Guitar Phenomena Quinn Sullivan
• WSJ: Can Jazz Be Saved?
• Amazon: Skin Deep, Can't Quit the Blues (Box Set) 
• GuitarVibe: The Amazing Buddy Guy

Comments

[Find Guitar Teachers]

Man, that kid has a promising future. My son is gonna have a guitar in hands from day one.

[fred k bauersfeld]

hi all im glad to say sunday the 14 i seen buddy guy and bb king at mgm foxwoods casino i made my way from montreal canada to see the show of 2 great blues legends but only to find myself to the ahh of quin sullivan who came on stage with buddy guy this young man just blew me away,being a lover of blues all my life and never got over the loss of srv this young man has and will offer more blues than we can take,thanks,quinn.