Pete Townshend would be proud. The kids in Massachusetts ar way more than alright.
Massachusetts� new new kids on the occlude don�t wear acid-washed jeans and lump on the hair colloidal gel; their claim to renown doesn�t involve synchronized dance or Tiger Beat-ready smiles. Instead, today�s young Bay State endowment has a decidedly adult take on music.
From a 9-year-old rockin� some strikingly authentic galvanizing Chicago blues with Buddy Guy to a 16-year-old playing building complex post-bop duets with Lee Konitz to a group of high school kids re-perfecting Elvis Costello-influenced power pop, the state�s hottest young artists have artistic ambitions that outshine the Hannah Montana pop of their peers.
Quinn Sullivan
Sitting in his parents� basement in New Bedford surrounded by a 6 guitars, 9-year-old Quinn picks out the Beatles� �Blackbird.� His petite fingers creep up and down the fret board forming tortuous chords. Then his young voice joins in, mixture Massachusetts with Paul McCartney�s Liverpudlian accent.
�Blackbird singing in the numb of night!� belts Quinn.
It�s cute, even impressive. But it�s just the tip of Quinn�s brilliance.
After finishing with the Fab Four, he straps on his Stratocaster and plugs in. Blues licks bounce around the basement, reechoing like Clapton�s guitar at its rawest, most chaotic and wild.
�The Beatles and Clapton and Buddy Guy, that�s by and large what I like to listen to,� says the soft-spoken and humble Quinn as he wails away.
�My friends like the stuff on Kiss-108,� he says, making a face like a plate of overcooked lima beans was dropped in front on him.
Guy took the primary school guitar whiz under his wing last yr. Sullivan guests on Guy�s new album, �Skin Deep,� and volition join the blues legend for a tune or two at his Bank of America Pavilion gig on Sunday.
�When I was Quinn�s long time I didn�t know what a guitar was,� Guy aforesaid from a Virginia duty tour stop. �When I observed the guitar I couldn�t afford nonpareil, so I used to put 2 nails in the wall with deuce rubber bands, trying to come up with a guitar sound. So it�s great Quinn�s started so young.
�The first time I brought him onstage I was knocked out by his playacting,� Guy continued. �He kept looking for up at me like he was saying, �Show me something I don�t already know.� �
The two met a year ago backstage before Guy�s show at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford.
�Quinn gave Buddy his guitar to sign and Buddy asked, �You wanna play a couple riffs on that?� � Quinn�s dad Terry Sullivan recalled. �So he played something and Buddy was just blown away. He said, �You better be ready tonight when I call in you up.� �
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