After playing five sold-out Turf Club gigs in as many weeks in January and early February, and not to mention a packed First Ave gig in November, the Cactus Blossoms apparently thought it redundant to book an official hometown release party touting their album that comes out today, "Easy Way." Instead, they opted to play a free in-store set at the Electric Fetus the night before the release day — a lengthier than normal in-store that almost felt as special as a whole-shebang party would have.
Ever-harmonious brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey brought their full twang-torchy band with them to the store Thursday night, including guitarists Tyler Burkum (the third brother) and Jacob Hanson (whose own brother Jeremy Hanson was on drums). This created quite a bottleneck of guitar necks on the Fetus's small collapsible stage.
"We're gonna joust a bit up here," Torrey quipped.
Once they squeezed into place, the brotherly crew comfortably combed through most of their new album tracks nearly in order, starting with the rousing, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"-flavored opener "Desperado" and then the restless, sandman-baiting ditty "I'm Calling You."
"We've been working on this album a really long time," Torrey said between songs with a bit of an exasperated tone. "We're a lot more excited about it than we look."
Even more than "I'm Dreaming," their 2016 Red House debut, "Easy Way" goes all-in on the core duo's uncannily Everly Brothers-esque harmonies. If you don't visibly swoon at least two dozen times listening to this album, with its many slow and dreamy and sometimes even grandiose tunes, you need to get out and look up at the stars more. "Boomerang," which came near the end of their Fetus set, was an especially infectious heartburner.
But "Easy Way" also adds a lot of new elements to the Cactus Blossoms formula. In broad terms, the lads actually sort of sound cockier – in a good way -- with a cool, austere swagger reminiscent of Dwight Yoakam's heyday material. The album also piles on the richly layered guitar work that has come to the fore in their live sets over the past couple years. In this case, Tyler Burkum gracefully danced up and down his two-neck, baritone-thickened instrument during "I'm Calling You," while Jacob Hanson churned out lush, pedal-steel-like flourishes in "See It Through."
The pinnacle of that six-string wizardry is the album's Rolling Stone-endorsed first single, "Please Don't Call Me Crazy," which (just like on the record) came three songs into the set. With its sputtering, tremelo-laced twang, the tune vibrated through the Fetus aisles beautifully. It was made all the more magical by the presence of local rock legend Curtiss A off to the side of the stage. Curt has long been crazy for the Cactus Blossoms, and he was cited by Page and Jack as the main inspiration of that would-be classic of a tune (which he said he considers a big compliment).
As was mentioned from the stage, the Blossoms currently do not have another hometown gig on the books. They're due to hit the road starting in two weeks at Willie Nelson's Luck Reunion (a festival held on Willie's ranch outside Austin concurrently with the South by Southwest conference). Hopefully, a hometown summer gig will pop up in the interim. Either way, we'll have plenty of time to get to know "Easy Way" before the next show.
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