Admire it too closely, and it could leave a mark. Singling out a particular highlight from Friday’s performance would be like choosing your favorite appendage: Even the encore - which featured the evening’s opener, Esther Rose, adding her exquisite vocals to the single “Everybody” - was rife with rapture.īack to the wry joke: A literal cactus blossom is, of course, a flower affixed to one of nature’s less inviting plants, its beauty situated amid razor-sharp spines. Though slight in number, the audience on hand more than made up for its scale with its enthusiasm, raucously cheering each tune and even indulging in a bit of dancing here and there. The Blossoms are perfectly capable of stomping up a head of steam that woud've been saluted by Hank Williams or Lefty Frizzell - as they did on “Change Your Ways or Die” - just as they deftly summon the ghosts of Roy Orbison or the Everly Brothers, as they did on “You’re Dreaming.” The Minneapolis-based band’s sound scans as alt-country, but there are other flavors percolating within: folk, pop and rock are evident, albeit each of those genres in the 1950s, ‘60s or ‘70s, when genres were a little hazier.Įven the encore - which featured the evening’s opener, Esther Rose, adding her exquisite vocals to the single “Everybody” - was rife with rapture. The set, a brief 75 minutes, nevertheless encompassed 20 songs, as most of the Cactus Blossoms’ four-album catalog is composed of songs that make a vivid impression and end far sooner than you’d like, akin to a sumptuous dream. Torrey and Burkum, making their first Dallas appearance in three years, had help in conjuring their magic - they were supported Friday by their cousin, Phillip Hicks, on bass, as well as Ben Lester on pedal steel and Matt Meyer on drums.
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But when it’s in full flower, as it was Friday night, there is nothing else like it: immaculate tenor voices, springing forth from Torrey and Burkum’s honeyed throats with little apparent effort, gliding along one another, dipping low and soaring high and suffusing the cozy, wood-lined room with the warm glow of satisfaction. The room - an eyeball estimate put the crowd somewhere a hair over a hundred souls - began to shift in their direction, pulled as if by invisible string.īlood harmony, the galvanizing effect of familial voices singing in unison, is a rare delight in modern music, perhaps discounted for its novelty in an age when anything can be summoned digitally. Brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum, each with a guitar across their chest, began singing the title track from their most recent LP, One Day, at the stroke of 9. The wry joke in the Cactus Blossoms’ name becomes apparent the moment the singing starts.Īs it happened Friday, on a simmering spring evening on the edge of Deep Ellum inside the venerable old Sons of Hermann Hall, the lovely melodies arrived with little fanfare.
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