top of page
big sunflower promo.jpg
ABOUT

ABOUT

"You can't help but fall in love

with the heartache."

PASTE

"A subtle but beautiful elegance...

If you've ever wondered where country and Americana music is going, look no further.

Blue Cactus is painting pictures of limitless possibility."

NO DEPRESSION

"If country music is often about familiarity and comfort, this is more like having the rug artfully pulled out from under you

without even noticing it."

CREATIVE LOAFING

"With a high lonesome twang,

an Emmylou-like southern drawl,

and blistering guitar techniques,

Blue Cactus’ new record exercises the

honky-tonk muscles to firmly bear

the flag for a new generation

of classic country practitioners."

NEW COMMUTE

Led by kindred spirit songwriters Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, Blue Cactus got their start among the active honky-tonk circuit of North Carolina, developing an electrified twang that now branches out effortlessly into folk, alt-country, and psychedelic-tinged rock. Blue Cactus has supported a diverse set of artists over its eight-year history (The War & Treaty, Town Mountain, and Steve Gunn, among others), Stewart’s introspective lyricism and Arnez’s skill for lush arrangements making the band potent in the studio and on stage. Praised by No Depression for their ability to paint “beautiful pictures of limitless possibility” in roots music, Blue Cactus has drawn comparisons to Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris. 

 

Stewart wrote her first song at the age of ten and developed her love for performing through karaoke, spending many evenings belting out country and rock classics alongside her family at The Dragon Palace, a restaurant-slash-karaoke bar in Hickory, North Carolina. Around the same time, her future bandmate Mario Arnez was singularly focused on studying a Beach Boys compilation tape using his very first piece of gear – a portable cassette recorder set up by his mother, a media specialist. The two met decades later when Arnez, a Florida transport to North Carolina, joined Stewart’s string band Steph Stewart & the Boyfriends. Instantly connecting artistically, they later fell in love and started their own country covers band, getting to know each other’s voices on a one-mic set-up, and eventually collaborating on songwriting as Blue Cactus. They’re a formidable pair due to their early musical training as listeners and fans – the heart of the band is Stewart’s heart-on-sleeve cowgirl storytelling and Arnez’s ear for orchestration. Blue Cactus has since grown a cult following in the South and beyond. The INDY Week wrote that the group’s debut self-titled album, a cheeky 60’s Nashville-influenced set of songs, “fully embod[ies] the love and heartbreak of honky-tonk”, while American Songwriter praised the duo’s ability to “funnel such an emotional, personal development right into the songwriting” on their glitter-and-glam-infused sophomore album, Stranger Again.


On their third full-length album BELIEVER, the duo’s sound ascends to new heights with a collection of intimate songs penned and sung primarily by Stewart, her rich voice narrating explorations of chronic illness, ruptured dreams, and the potential of hope – with the help of an all-star cast of harmony singers (among them Erin Rae, Brit Taylor and Kate Rhudy). BELIEVER was recorded primarily in two sessions - one produced in Nashville, TN by Whit Wright, and starring local veteran session musicians including Russ Pahl and Rich Ruth; the other in Blue Cactus’ home community near Chapel Hill, NC, produced by Saman Khoujinian (The Dead Tongues, Mountain Man) and featuring their close-knit house band of Piedmont players. The album coheres with the mixing skills of Derek Garten (of Taylor Swift’s meticulous Taylor’s Version album reconstructions), showcasing skillful and adventurous roots music with a deeply personal heart.

TOUR

TOUR

PRESS

PRESS

glide_logo_300-150x150.png

"Plenty of twang without coming off as forced country nostalgia and enough hooks and universal lyrical themes to win over pop music fans."

NPR_Music_logo.png
cropped-banner-white-transparentbg.png

"A major expansion of their sound into an amalgamation of rock, folk, and Americana...an astonishing variety of sounds, from the nostalgic sway of 'Rodeo Queen' to the rollicking stomp of 'Rebel' to the cinematic crackle of 'Radioman' to the subtle sensuality of 'Stranger Again.'"

IndyWeek flag white with black backgroun

"Blue Cactus evokes a celestial soundscape of

mid-century heartbreak. Rather than attempt to fix what’s broken, this prickly pair of cosmic country artists embrace it."

th-logo-white.png

"The North Carolina country duo premieres
a new song 
about musical and romantic partnership,
and the sanctity of new experiences."

AS-Logo-200-DPI-1.png

"An emotional, personal development with an almost psychedelic turn."

w9wz9wnzsbtg_edited.jpg

"One of the top bands of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro music scene that has produced a lot of great stuff this year – new music from The Connells, Watchhouse/Mandolin Orange, Southern Culture on the Skids, and more –
and even amidst all that, 'Stranger Again'
might be the album of the year so far."

flood_logo_1200x1200_edited.png

"The album continues the pair’s mission to blend classic country sounds with vintage ’70s pop sensibilities and a sobering sense of honesty."

Clture-Web-Logo.png

"Their most pronounced and well-defined work to date...their follow-up album Stranger Again
promises to take the group to even greater heights."

14054511_979433252201842_416522214720588

"The otherworldliness of the music, is almost in perfect contrast to their distinctly grounded and human story-telling, throughout the record they tackle topics as old as music itself; loss and longing, self-improvement and self-expression, personal, political and human struggles, and the joys of hard work paying off."

ear-tothe-ground.png

"There’s a lonesome honesty to this song
that will creep right into your soul from first listen."

unnamed.jpeg

"An incredibly tender performance that teeters on the edge of heartbreak. 'Come Clean'
is a profound 
confession of frailty."

CONTACT

CONTACT

BOOKING

LABEL

PRESS

BAND

RADIO

MARKETING

LEGAL

BROOKLYN BASEMENT

  • Bandcamp
  • Spotify
  • Apple Music
  • Tidal
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Youtube
  • Patreon
bottom of page