courtesy photo
by Sean Holohan
Kevin Sullivan once referred to classical music — the backbone of his life — as “wuss music.”
He laughs about it now, picking the “Bridal Chorus” on classical guitar to further prove his point.
Sullivan, one of the players in Omaha Guitar Trio, sits with the rest of his band in their rehearsal space, his newly purchased private guitar studio called Sully’s Guitar Lessons in Ralston.
“See?” he says, “That is the kind of music I always thought of.”
When Sullivan first started playing guitar around 6th grade, it made sense for him to think that way. He says when he first started playing, he was into blink-182 and metal music, not the classical music that he makes his living on today. Although he would later graduate from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a music performance degree in classical guitar, he admits his musical tastes have changed quite a bit since his musical beginnings.
Now the Omaha band, a three-piece instrumental act featuring all guitar players on classical guitars — consisting of Sullivan, Andrew Stickman and Max Meyer — says they know not only how dignified classical guitar can be, but also how relatable they can make it to the casual listener.
"All of our original pieces are serious, but every now and then we have done other fun songs like The Legend of Zelda or the Tetris theme," he says.
Years before they won the 2013 OEAA for Best Jazz, Omaha Guitar Trio formed in 2010 when all three members were studying at UNO. Sullivan, the most vocal of the three, says during his junior year, he needed two other people to accompany him for a recital, and he was acquainted with Meyer and Stickman through classes.
"I knew they were rockers and could learn stuff easily by ear and improvise,” Sullivan says. “Some of the people in my class weren’t good at learning songs by ear and I didn’t really trust my writing at this point, so they worked out great for me.”
Shortly after the recital, Stickman asked the other two if they would be interested in playing a show with him two weeks later.
“He said, ‘It’s at a restaurant and we need three hours of music,’” Sullivan remembers as the band all laughs. “We were like, ‘OK how many Beatles and video game songs do we know?’”
The three began playing shows almost once a week at the Benson restaurant Espana the following summer. After jamming and writing together, they knew they had chemistry and Omaha Guitar Trio was born.
The band's music is instrumental with all three members playing guitar. Their music features all three members weaving in and out of the others' guitar playing as each alternates between keeping the rhythm and key with chords or adding lead parts with riffs of their own over the top.
Sullivan estimates they’ve played about one show every month since their inception and have played in almost every venue in and around Omaha. Among their favorites, they say, are the regular haunt of Espana and Slowdown.
In January, they played the Bend Guitar Blast in Oregon. It was the band’s first out-of-town show and they said it was one of their favorite moments in the band’s history.
“It was amazing,” Sullivan says. “The whole city looked like a postcard and we got to open up for Denis Azabagic, who I always say is like the Michael Jordan of classical guitar.”
The band says a typical Omaha Guitar Trio show will consist mostly of originals and other classical pieces they are fans of and would like to learn. And every day, they try to write more music to add to their repertoire. But every so often they will throw in covers of songs they love from bands like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin. One of the band's favorite covers they’ve done was Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand.”
"We’ll always play jams or guitar songs that any of us write but then we usually throw in popular songs that we can jam to," Stickman says.
In December, the band released their self-titled album, which was recorded in Omaha at the house of recording engineer Jeremy Garrett. The band says they are happy to finally have their work recorded to show anyone who might be interested.
"This is our first proper recording that we’ve ever had,” Sullivan says. “In the past we had a few recordings of songs here and there, but they were never of the greatest quality and Jeremy did a great job with this album.”
The album's single is “Farmland,” which was written when they all went out to Stickman’s parents’ cabin in Ashland for an “artistic retreat.” They say the song was inspired by visualizing a farmer’s day in the fields and the music that might go along with it.
In addition to playing shows, the band goes to high schools across Omaha and performs and teaches. Stickman says the band will usually go to middle schools and high schools and perform for a class and then step in and teach the class for a day.
All three members of Omaha Guitar Trio teach lessons privately outside of the band, as well. Meyer splits his time between Omaha's School of Rock and SNJ Studios and Sullivan teaches at his studio. The band says teaching guitar is one their favorite aspects of being a part of Omaha Guitar Trio.
"There are those small, tangible moments when you’re teaching and you realize, this is why I do it," Meyer says. "Every bad guitar lesson is made up for with this one awesome moment. It’s that face where the student is like, ‘Oh wow, I just played that chord. I didn’t know I could ever do that.’”
Now in the band’s fourth year of existence, every member says he is grateful for the opportunity to play guitar and promote the world of classical guitar and classical music for a living. For the three members of Omaha Guitar Trio, playing music for a living is a dream come true. For Sullivan especially, this dream of his has been a long time coming.
“I remember when I started taking guitar lessons at Dietz and I saw my guitar teacher and said to myself, ‘That guy has the coolest job ever. He plays guitar for a living, that’s what I want to do,’” he says. “And now I do.”
Sean Holohan is Hear Nebraska’s editorial intern. These guys are really, really good at guitar. Reach him at seanh@hearnebraska.org.