T
here aren’t many country
bands covering Prince’s “Purple Rain” out there, but when
Jacksonville country trio Young Sullivan perform it, they turn heads.
“Taylor Hicks specifically requested it
at the end of the night,” said singer and
guitarist Stephen Sullivan, talking about
the 2006 American Idol winner and coperformer at the Ragin’ Cajun Festival in
May.
“He heard us playing it when he first pulled
in,” explained Sullivan, before a wry accusation that the band wouldn’t have performed
the tune at all if singer and guitarist Brandon
Young hadn’t forced the matter by starting
the song.
“I started playing the chord progression,
turned up the amp a little bit,” Young said with
a laugh.
“I kind of said, ‘Great, can’t stop now,’” laughed
Sullivan, who admitted that the mischievous
bandmate’s gambit paid off when it got Hicks’
attention. “That’s probably one of the highlights of my career.”
The pair stretch outside the norm for their
genre in more ways than just song choices.
Ring up Sullivan’s cell phone and there’s a classical music ringback tone, one of those ringer replacements that plays a song instead of
the droning buzz of a ringing phone. He and
Young both performed as trumpeters before
making the move to country, and Sullivan
spent a few years as a karaoke DJ under the
unlikely moniker of DJ Scuba Steve. They don’t
have the same kind of bells and whistles that
usually jangle when you shake a country band.
But listen to them sing and there’s authenticity
in their vocals and instrumentation, effortless
harmonization and tight interplay between
Sullivan’s acoustic guitar, Young’s electric guitar and the licks and solos of lead guitarist Mason Prickett. Sullivan credits his background
as a Jacksonville State University Marching
Southerner for the strength of the band’s ar-
INSIGHT
July 2014
21