Cactus Cottage

🌵NEW SONGS WE LOVE♥️

Today on Cactus Cottage🌵

Ray Prim Music 🎶
"Mr. Midlife"

The year was 1997, or thereabouts. A young music lover, destined to become a Cactus Cottage writer, was seeking out great live music at the tiny clubs and dive bars of San Marcos, Texas.

Groups like Vallejo and Humble Bums played at a venue that was a café during the day, so our intrepid writer squeezed into all-ages shows on school nights instead of doing AP English homework. This was an era of corduroy patchwork bell bottoms, handmade halter tops, beaded h**p jewelry, and following Phish on tour.

Scott H. Biram was at The Triple Crown weekly. Blue October had just moved to San Marcos from Houston, they still had their original violin player, and they hadn't made their first radio single yet.

A fantastic band, 7 Stones from Austin, came down to play some San Marcos gigs a few times. They had songs on the radio, they were super danceable, and they really grooved together, so they were a big deal in our college party town. The dance floor stayed packed and glistening with a sheen of s*x and humidity. This baby writer fell in love with their funky style and caught every show possible, even traveling to Austin clubs like Steamboat.

Twenty five years later, we wondered what became of that band, and we rediscovered Ray Prim, the lead singer and driving force.

Ray, now identifying himself perceptively as a singer/soulwriter, has had an impressive solo career for a long time while we weren't necessarily following along (sorry, Ray). This latest single, Mr. Midlife, has our full attention.

It starts slow and sad, with emotional tones on the organ and themes of anxiety and shame. Our man has learned a lot from life, and a few of the lessons have fallen just short of tipping over the edge. The music builds with electric guitar and piano bringing some customary and required funk as the singer learns how to release and process past experiences and how to ask for help from others.

The build-up continues to grow and the climax is big with the full band, horns, strings, background vocals, and Ray's powerful voice at the pinnacle of realization. We learn how to laugh at ourselves and our challenges as we persist in this life. We need each other to hold onto. Each person is their own best hope of giving themselves what they truly need to survive and thrive.

Mr. Midlife is a thoughtful, mature, fun, funkalicious, and well-rounded hit. Check out Ray Prim today! Follow his page for lots of live shows in the Austin area. Here's the single:

https://open.spotify.com/album/3CaiHNfbR3W6X8dpTIiDFN?si=SUbtZ4ZfQfOcct4IBX_Wvg

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This looks great! 🌵

Join us this Friday at Mozart’s Summer Songwriter Showcase at Mozart's Coffee Roasters. 9-11pm!

Ticket Link: https://www.showclix.com/tickets/summer-songwriter?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabnnCmdeIoQQ-uJu0KZojcyEUB5uEN1d5eanfUU8JoHV1-R_BxDt78Ej-M_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw #

Happy birthday to a talented musician and swell guy Stefan Prigmore 🌵🥳🌵🥳🌵

Brian Wolff and the Howlers summer tour!

Austin, our summer tour kicks off one month from today!

We couldn't leave without saying goodbye so we're doing a special tour sendoff show at The Saxon Pub. We are SO excited to get back on that stage and to play some new songs for you before we hit the road!

Yer not gonna wanna miss this one. Tickets available now at the link in the comments!

Pat Byrne at Gruene Hall!

Urban Pioneers + Hotel Turkey Boot Shop Sessions = A swingin' musical jaunt through the middle of nowhere 🥰 Check out the new video now!!

🤠🌵🤠🌵🤠🌵

https://youtu.be/P5RtU8Yzb_g?si=MZBJdw42Yf054hiP

So excited for this gig this Wednesday with Brandon Day at Waldo Folk with Minor Gold! It checks all the boxes!

Pizza ✅
Beer✅
Listening room✅
Harmony singing✅
Groovy guitar licks ✅

Are you coming? Tickets available at waldofolk.com.

This Friday, June 21
Brad Fielder returns to Angry Scotsman Brewing for an evening of acoustic fingerpicking on folk, roots, ragtime, and Country-blues music.

With 30 years of live performances under his belt, Brad Fielder is a well seasoned entertainer. Paying homage to the American experience, he makes folk music for all folks. It’s quirky and relevant, old and new fashioned. While busking as a one-man-band or leading a full ensemble on a festival stage the mission remains the same: Bring the music to the people.

find more about Brad Fielder on his website
https://www.bradfielder.net/

photo: Marissa Johnson

🌵NEW SONGS WE LOVE♥️

Today on Cactus Cottage 🌵

Keegan McInroe (Music Page)
"Big Year"

Somewhere in an alternate universe, there's a honkytonk bar where Merle Haggard and Leon Russell are having some beers together. Randy Newman walks in (yes, we know he's not dead...just let it happen), and challenges Leon to an arm wrestling match for dibs on the piano bench. After a few more drinks, someone pulls out a joint and passes it around. Randy gets up and heads to the piano. The bartender turns down the jukebox speaker. And they all do a rousing rendition of Keegan McInroe's "Big Year."

This dancehall tune gives a big howdy to our hometown Fort Worth, and it has the feel of an instant classic. Filled with optimism and mild substances, our storyteller looks out on a new year with hope, wistfulness, and some painful memories. We also love the arrangement, background vocals by Hannah Owens, and strings by Dirt Stinnett that make us want to two-step. This song would be great for shifting energies or sipping whiskey. We'll have one of each.

This is the first track from Keegan's new album, Dusty Passports and Empty Beds.

Check out Keegan Mcinroe today!

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Live and in person!

"Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby - love. That's the secret."

❤️ -Louis Armstrong

Here's our friend Sky Smeed with his folky country cover about the most important thing of all ❤️🌵❤️ We love the steel and acoustic guitars arranged together and the full, warm vocals on this spin of a timeless classic, "What a Wonderful World."

Streaming now! Also check out Sky's socials and YouTube for more!

https://open.spotify.com/album/4cb1NfDg8oV4aXbTyi7Ogo?si=r9ZERoDOSr-bftjTb3q-Ag

🌎❤️🌎❤️🌎❤️🌎❤️

🌵Today on Cactus Cottage, we have a new featured game called 🎶 SPOTIFY SHOWER SESSIONS 🎶

🌵We chose a playlist, in this case Folk Alliance International 2024, and we cranked the hot water. These steamy little numbers forced us to get out of the shower to find out who was playing, and the criteria for the game were set.

🌵Play along at home! Choose a playlist with some familiarity but some new-to-you stuff also. Start your shower as usual, and take note of who deserves a crack in your curtain to dig more into their music.

We stopped at:

🎈Hold On - John Smith

This coastal crooner from jolly old England delivered breezy orchestration and choral accompaniments with a powerful voice and a horn section that's in the groove. There's a touch of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" homage on the guitar riff for this tune about being able to share your authentic self with someone special.

This song is from John's 2021 album, The Fray. John has a new album called The Living Kind.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/56GNqAFg9wJNTwcHsJhyS2?si=2dD-HeLqRoWmaUuCZmTpOA

✂️ Cut the Ties - Olive Klug

This feels like road trip pop with bluegrass strings, sweet harmonies, and interesting percussion. Olive's vocals range from gentle to fierce with conviction, in this song about independence and making life what you want it to be.

This song is from Olive's 2023 release called Don't Make Me Jaded. Olive has a new single called, "What to Make of Me "

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3SEtmo8E5DJVuGddKYqeiU?si=I8aqx5r8Q_OO5z5gJHd

🕰Taking Our Time - Mark Wilkinson

The Sydney based songwriter begins this song with simple, soft acoustic guitar and very little arrangement. The journey builds to hints of mandolin, electric guitar, and piano. They reach a great crescendo as a full band in this ode to intentionality of the present moment.

This track is from Mark's latest EP, Golden Afternoons.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2xotqeudHAi6eXva57U5nK?si=zWjNriCgQTK6EqtI-CV3Ww

Let us know if you play this game! We put these songs and many others on our Cactus Cottage playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/71NjQOWJEjEz452Z690Bz3?si=kb8EhGneSOqPBVt4ESUERg&pi=M0ArxxtBSCC3R

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Get your SHIVE MAN shirt today from Brad Fielder , the king of one-line drawings, one-man bands, and one helluva new album DEMONS +RATIONALS 😈 🙌 🌵

Shive Man Shirt (one-line cowboy) from Brad Fielder Shive Man Shirt (one-line cowboy) from Brad Fielder

The Swallowtails doing what they do so well 🌵🥰

We play Boulevardia this Saturday in KC! ☀️

Find us on the Propaganda3 Park Stage at 3:10pm, full bandin’ it with Evan Verploegh on drums + Trey Green on bass!!

Happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 to Beth Watts Nelson Music 🎶 She’s giving us a present! 🌵

This Friday, June 14, is my BIRTHDAY and I get to spend it making music with three exceptional songwriters in a historical building turned "shrine to arts and beauty" in KCMO!!! Come share the evening with me and Kelly Hunt , Kirstie Lynn Mosher and Galen Clark at The Greenwood Social Hall. There will be no shortage of banjos and harmony singing - two of my very favorite things! Grab tickets here: https://greenwoodsocialhall.com/event/5538515/677351369/kelly-hunt-kirstie-lynn-galen-clark-beth-watts-nelson

📸: Joy Zimmerman ❤

Exciting stuff from Jacob Furr 🌵

Just another week at work for Stefan Prigmore 🌵🙌🌵

New album by The Hooten Hallers ! 🌵

We are VERY excited to announce the impending release of our fifth studio album, The Devil's Egg, on August 9, 2024. The first single (and title track) is out NOW wherever you listen to music.
Listen, preorder & presave here:
lnk.to/the-hooten-hallers-the-devils-egg

'A group of three disillusioned teenaged punks find themselves transported into a terrifying alternate universe in The Devil’s Egg, a new fantasy rock opera from Missouri music renegades The Hooten Hallers. Throughout 13 spellbinding tracks, the rock opera’s coming-of-age storyline conjures science fiction and folklore to transport characters through an epic and transformative quest. You are hereby invited to join The Hooten Hallers on their wildest, most cinematic journey yet.'

Go on, get there! 🌵

Come and say “G’day to Australias Minor Gold at The Shoe Tree ! INTERNATIONALLY TOURING acoustic duo! Alcohol free nonprofit venue! Tickets available at the door!

Today at Cactus Cottage we wanna turn you on to Jakob Robertson 's new single, "Are You Ever Gonna Learn."

🌵We love this E Street-styled driving lope that asks us what we really want from love.

This denim-hearted poet has been surprising and flooring crowds around his native Fort Worth for a few years, and this is his first release. Jakob is held in high regard by other Fort Worth artists, and came into the music world via his father, Chuck Robertson.

Yesterday, when we asked him how he felt about his new release, he told us, "I feel good! Trying to not take it all so seriously anymore and just finally start putting out some art, ya know?"

We're sure glad he did!

Listen to "Are You Ever Gonna Learn" here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0KndQWCn0PdWt6Ed6nqZm6?si=BwpwoGhTTLyuhIvlFBENfw

🌵🎶🌵🎶💙🌵💙🌵

BIG UPS to the singularly talented multi instrumentalist Brad Fielder 👏 for the release of DEMONS+RATIONALS today! Do you have your copy yet?!?! 🌵

Demons+Rationals, by Brad Fielder 12 track album

Tour shirts arrived with a few days to spare! We did a quick turnaround of a single color version of our new shirts to bring on the road with us over the next couple of weeks. We'll have S-4X in limited numbers. If we have any left, they'll be available at local shows.

The two-color shirts are still on target to be here next week while we're on the road, so we'll have those heading out to presale folks on June 20th.

So, where can you pick there shirts up on the road? Well...

June 7th - The 806 Coffee + Lounge - Amarillo, TX (9pm)
June 8th - Crafty Canary Brewery - Walsenburg, CO (6pm)
June 9th - The Forge Publick House - Fort Collins, CO (4pm) Sinnin' Sunday w/ Sugar Britches
June 10th - Ruffed Up Duck Saloon - Laramie, WY (8pm) w/ Grifters & Shills and Luke Hendrickson
June 12th - Red Rooster Coffee House - Aberdeen, SD (6pm) w/ Grifters & Shills
June 14th - Kargas Farm House Concerts - Litchfield, MN (6pm) w/ Grifters & Shills
June 15th - Nordic Brewpub - Monticello, MN (7pm) w/ Grifters & Shills
June 16th - Gaslight Gardens - Lawrence, KS (7pm) w/ Grifters & Shills
June 17th - Kirby's - Wichita, KS (8pm) w/ Lung and el Jefe
June 18th - Beer Is Good Brewing Company - Norman, OK (7pm) w/ Grifters & Shills

We look forward to seeing y'all out there on the road! Thanks for all the support and we're so stoked to be coming to see so many friendly faces!