The Cactus Blossoms – Minneapolis-based blood harmony brother duo Page Burkum and Jack Torrey – have announced their new album Easy Way, to be released March 1 on their own Walkie Talkie Records. The album is the follow-up to their stunning 2016 debut You’re Dreaming, which NPR’s All Things Considered hailed for its “creative turns of phrase, gorgeous harmonies, and ageless sound.” That album preceded a number of milestones for The Cactus Blossoms including tours with Kacey Musgraves and Lucius, performances on prestigious stages ranging from Newport Folk to Lincoln Center, and a perfectly cast appearance on the third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.
Produced by the brothers and recorded at Reliable Recorders in Chicago, Easy Way features ten new, original songs, and a number of special contributors including Dan Auerbach who co-wrote two tracks, plus Michael Lewis (Bon Iver, Andrew Bird) on saxophone and Joel Paterson (Devil in a Woodpile) on pedal steel.
Rolling Stone premierd the first track, the jagged garage-soul burner, “Please Don’t Call Me Crazy” which “finds the twosome pulling back from the more delicate, early country melodies and scuffing up their sound in Roy Orbison-meets-Television style.”
The brothers told Rolling Stone “Part of the inspiration was this local legend named Curtiss A. He does an annual John Lennon tribute that everyone in town loves, and he’s been playing punk and rock & roll since the late Seventies. So it’s looking at the world through the eyes of an old rocker in the age of Facebook.” Torrey observes in the song that a “computer in your pocket” delivers “what you want/not what you need.”
The Cactus Blossoms will tour extensively in 2019 with a run of headlining dates to be announced soon.
