This week DeBraun Thomas profiles long-time Lexington musician Chris Sullivan of The Big Maracas and The Swells.
Chris Sullivan is a multi-instrumentalist who has been part of the Lexington music scene for over two decades. Sullivan moved around a lot as a child and actually got his start in music singing telegrams. Growing up in Spain Sullivan was taught to play by a local guitarist and says that was just the start of his long musical journey.
“He was a virtuoso Flamenco guy, like, incredible guitar player, he taught me all these like Spanish folk songs and stuff like that, so I knew that stuff as well as anything you would hear on the radio so, between that experience and my parents just kinda listened to all kinda different stuff, classical music, Willie Nelson, to rock n roll, it sorta just opened my ears to all kinds a different sounds and different music from all over the place.”
Sullivan’s appreciation for diverse music led to him being part of two of the most long standing bands, the Big Maracas, which is more of a Latin based band and the Swells which pull in influences from all kinds of music. Because he has traveled to Cuba and other places, Sullivan’s knowledge of the music is pretty extensive. He says because of the syncopation within the music, it has made him not just a better musician, but a better band member as well.
“There’s all these intricate percussion parts that all sort of fit together and it’s all call and response, there’s one little part and there’s some other instrument that answers back, but it doesn’t end with the drumming, the guitar, piano or bass parts are all basically call and response percussion parts and it’s all sort of woven together like this pretty complex thing, but you hear the same thing in a lot of funk and New Orleans music, but anyways it’s taught me to listen a lot more.”
Sullivan is releasing his first solo record called Western Movies. The name comes from a combination of the musical theme and the fact that he started recording music before the album that was intended for a film. When that didn’t work out, he just kept recording his original music. Sullivan says that everything surrounding the album just came at the right time.
“I’ve got a little studio situation that sort of presented itself and I’ve been cobbling recording gear for a long time and I just wanted to see if I could play all the instruments myself and put out my own songs and put a record out, I’ve never really put a record of all my stuff out.
Chris Sullivan performs with the Big Maracas and the Swells. Sullivan will be performing on February 12th at the Tadoo Lounge in Smiley Pete’s building for the CD release for Western Movies. More information can be found here.
