Dennis Quaid & Sharks - Out Of The Box

Dennis Quaid & The Sharks first-ever studio album. • Produced by Dennis Quaid, Jamie James. • Features Dennis Quaid originals and songs by The Doors, Van Morrison & more. Dennis Quaid & The Sharks origins can be traced to a night when Quaid went to see actor Harry Dean Stanton and his longtime band perform in Los Angeles. Quaid was invited to join the band onstage. At first reluctant, because of his decade-long layoff from music, Quaid finally acquiesced and his performance planted a seed with Jamie James, guitar player in Stanton's band. Soon after, James approached Quaid about starting a group of their own. James quickly began recruiting others for the band and it wasn't long before Dennis Quaid & The Sharks were performing on the L.A. club circuit. Quaid was certainly no stranger to either the recording studio or the stage being a seasoned actor and having cut songs for soundtracks to his movies dating back to the '80s with contributions to soundtracks like The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, Tough Enough, The Big Easy, and more. Music had always been important to Quaid, "As far back as I can remember, music has always been a big part of my life. My third cousin was Gene Autry, the original Western movie singing cowboy. My grandmother played piano and sang songs from the '20s, songs from her youth. My dad played piano and crooned like Bing Crosby and looked a little like Dean Martin." Among Quaid's musical heroes you'll find Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Willie & Waylon, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, The Doors, James Brown, and more. With influences like those, it's no surprise that members of The Sharks have serious musical pedigrees of their own with Jamie James having led The Kingbees; and Sharks, Tom Mancillas, Ken Stange, and Tom Walsh having worked over the years with artists as varied as Harry Dean Stanton to Roger Miller, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, America, and more! Now, Dennis Quaid & The Sharks have made the first studio album of their 18-year history, Out Of The Box, and on it you'll find they specialize in "rock 'n' roll and country-soul," or as Quaid calls it, "a junkyard of American music." The album is produced by Dennis Quaid and Jamie James. Cut at the legendary Village Studios in Los Angeles, listeners will find an album filled with original songs by Dennis Quaid sitting alongside choice covers by The Doors, Van Morrison, and Larry Williams. The band tours as often as Quaid's schedule will allow and he says the shows are as much fun for those in attendance as they are for the band. "(The audiences) have a blast, which is all we want," he said. "I make a complete and utter fool of myself. I think that's the only way to have fun (onstage), instead of trying to pretend to be cool and all the rest of that stuff." The band will even occasionally throw in a song or two by Jerry Lee Lewis, who Quaid had firsthand experience playing in Great Balls Of Fire, the 1989 biopic of "The Killer." (The accompanying soundtrack features a Quaid/Lewis duet on "Crazy Arms"). On stage, or now, on record-Dennis Quaid & The Sharks are coming at you and finally busting Out Of The Box!