'Still a whirlwind' — Fresh off success on 'The Voice,' Olesen looks forward to Lincoln shows (2024)

The mohawk isn't doing Bryan Olesen any favors these days.

When the Lincoln singer is in public, it's not unheard of for strangers to recognize him by his distinctive shock of black hair. Such is Olesen's life now thanks to his new-found fame from "The Voice," the NBC singing contest where he recently finished third.

"Especially if I'm not wearing a hat. This haircut doesn't help me," Olesen said after a fan congratulated him at an airport in Arizona on Wednesday while he talked to a Journal Star reporter on the phone.

Of course, Olesen is grateful for the support, whether it's from a stranger on the street ("Thank you very much," he told his airport adorer) or his faithful fans back home in Lincoln, where Olesen is set to play a series of shows starting by fronting the ’80s band AM/FM on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Live at Telegraph.

That show, the first in the annual summer concert series outside The Mill Coffee & Tea's Telegraph location, will kick off a bit of a hometown tour for Olesen, who is just beginning to come to terms with his post-"Voice" stardom.

"It's still a whirlwind, it's just a different whirlwind, trying to catch back up," he said. "Now, it's just trying to merge back in. There's a lot of show requests and things like that, just trying to figure all of that out. ... It's been great. I'm super grateful and thankful for the entire experience."

In addition to the Mill show, Olesen will also play with AM/FM at the Fallbrook Summer Festival, and on June 11, he'll take the Bourbon Theatre stage with Nathan Chester, who finished fourth on "The Voice."

"We weren't sure where to host the show together, since he's from Nashville, but I convinced him like, 'Let's do this current one in Nebraska,' and so that's what we're doing," Olesen said. "We hope for more. There's some people talking about us doing a tour together ... we'll see how things unfold."

It's sort of a happy accident that Olesen, frontman of the Christian rock band VOTA, will open the Telegraph Concert Series — his daughter Jadyn, AM/FM's lead singer, is busy in L.A.

"I said, 'Hey, I'll help you.' And so yeah, hopefully I do them justice since she's pretty dang good at being the singer for AM/FM," Bryan Olesen said.

Dave Miller, regional general manager and events coordinator at Allo, which helps put on the concert series, didn't know they'd get such a big star to open its sixth season when they first booked AM/FM, either.

Miller hired VOTA to play last year after he saw Olesen and his band do a Tom Petty tribute at the Bourbon, but initially didn't think he would be able to make it this time around.

"John Lefler, the drummer of AM/FM, said, 'Hey, Dave, slight change of plans. Bryan is going to be singing with us,'" Miller said. "I thought, that works out perfectly."

The Wednesday shows, which are free to the public and feature food and drink sold by the Mill, typically average about 700 people, Miller said. He's expecting a few more to show up this time around.

"It's probably going to be record crowds," he said. "Every year, it continues to get bigger and bigger for a number of reasons ... We're really putting out a great product."

Miller said Allo encourages people to come early if they want to snag seating. People can also bring their own chairs.

Parking is available in the parking lot east of the Mill and Allo, but Miller said it can get congested with games going on simultaneously at the nearby Lewis Ballfield Complex. Additional parking is available in the Nelnet lot southwest of the Mill and by Allo's warehouse building to the west, Miller said.

The idea for the series started with Brad Moline, Allo's founder and CEO, who also has a musical background and recognized the space outside the company's headquarters would be perfect for entertainment. Miller also has a musical background, performing in the classic rock B Street Band, which will play July 31.

"We kind of consider ourselves the house band," he said.

The series, which will feature bands from a variety of genres, including bluegrass, country, classic rock, pop, R&B and Latin fusion, runs through Aug. 7. Food and drink sales begin at 5 p.m. and a local brewery will be featured each week. More information and a complete lineup of acts can be found at liveattelegraph.com.

For Olesen, the upcoming shows are a "wonderful" opportunity to give back to his hometown fans who rooted for him on "The Voice," including those who attended watch parties at the Bourbon and the Lied Center for Performing Arts Center to cheer him on.

"For me to have stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, and to have some kind of a local community following, is part of the reason why I convinced Nathan, 'Hey, just come to Lincoln,' I've got so many deeper connections here," he said. "So it feels really good to be able to come home and just feel good about how I was able to represent Nebraska on the show as well."

That opportunity was one that Olesen hadn't even considered trying out for before his fellow drummer from VOTA forwarded him an email about auditions for "The Voice."

That began an unexpected journey for the 50-year-old — the oldest contestant on this past season — that included Olesen making it to the top five thanks to a last-minute vote from the public that pushed him into the finals. There, powerful performances of songs from Benson Boone and George Michael helped propel Olesen to third place overall.

But the Lincoln singer's favorite performance, ultimately, was getting to sing Joe Bonamassa's "Feelin’ Good" alongside his coach John Legend on the show's final episode.

"I felt like we gelled so well together, it was such a great version of the song, just even the way he approached it, the way he sang," Olesen said. "Singing with him was just a dream."

So what's next for Olesen?

"We (VOTA) have an album that we were working on before the show started," he said. "And so in some ways, it'll be more of the same, but obviously there's more inquiries coming now, which is great. ... I know there's a lot of people interested in me personally, but they also want me to introduce them to the music that I'm doing, and that's kind of the best way to do that."

Having a cool mohawk doesn't hurt either.