Traditional "Celtic" music has appeared through, among others, the long-running Battlefield Band the Irish band Cluaan and Julie Fowlis, whom the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph predicted, "could be the first Scottish Gaelic crossover star." Cajun superstars BeauSoleil have played the room, as has Louisiana's D.L. Multi-instrumentalist Oliver Rajamani has brought South Asian Indian music to the Cactus.
#Cactus music austin texas plus
These include Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Tish Hinojosa, Doug Sahm, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, plus Grammy winner Nanci Griffith, Oscar recipient Ryan Bingham and, on dozens of occasions, the great songwriter Townes Van Zandt, gone since 1997, legendary yet largely unknown, whose signed photo hangs on the wall, stage right. Conscious of its roots, the room's hosted a multitude of beloved Texas-bred songwriters. The Cactus has hosted the famed Hot Tuna, plus Ani Di Franco, Michelle Shocked, Louden Wainwright III, Grammy recipient Shawn Colvin, genre-bending jazzmen Mose Allison and Stanley Jordan, and 21st-century hitmaker Jason Mraz, who appeared there long before the hit. Blues artists Taj Mahal, Corey Harris, Honeyboy Edwards, John Hammond, and Shemekia Copeland appeared at the Cactus, as did Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who resisted the blues label fiercely, in favor of declaring himself an all-around "American musician." Celebrated British songwriters Richard Thompson and Al Stewart have performed there plus cultish, sometime-rock artists Robyn Hitchcock, Graham Parker, and Shawn Phillips. The pre-fame Dixie Chicks played there, as have countless others who work within the realm of so-called alternative country music, including the Cowboy Junkies, Gillian Welch, and Grammy winner Lucinda Williams.Ĭzech bluegrassers Druha Trava have appeared at the Cactus, and so have American bluegrass and old-time country legends Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and Ralph Stanley, plus next-wave string bands Nickel Creek and the Old Crow Medicine Show. The cafe presented a young Alison Krauss, the bluegrass-inflected pop and country star, who's gone on to win more Grammys than any other woman, including an "Album of the Year" award shared with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant.
But Cactus performances encompass a wide stylistic range, and the artists who appear there, and their fierce devotees, fuel an ongoing American passion for original, eclectic, non-mainstream sounds. It's a very tiny venue, and many of the room’s most illustrious performers are unknown to a broad public. The Cactus’ focus was contemporary roots music and within that vibrant world its performers were extraordinarily diverse. Without a doubt, songwriting-troubadours wielding acoustic guitars have been a Cactus mainstay, leading some to characterize the room as a frozen-in-time repository of a stereotypical, 1960s-style "folk music." But those who view the cafe through that narrow lens have never paid close attention. He never played there, but many of his 1960s running buddies have, including Dave Van Ronk, Tom Paxton, Odetta, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Carolyn Hester, and Arlo Guthrie, son of the legendary Woody, whose "Alice's Restaurant" is part of pop culture scripture. Bob Dylan is the Cactus Cafe's spiritual godfather. There's no adequate way to summarize a three-decade legacy in a few paragraphs, but some summary is needed to convey the flavor of the room. Billboard magazine, the music industry's commercial bible, had called the Cactus an "institution," and "an influential songwriters club," and included it in a list of fourteen "solidly respected, savvy clubs the kinds of stages from which careers can be cut, that work with proven names and new faces."
Once and future stars, an astonishing number of legends, and countless hopefuls, had graced its miniature stage or, on rare occasions, larger rooms upstairs or down the hall. He was reacting to a university press release, issued near sundown on a winter Friday, that announced the impending closure of the cafe, which had hosted some of the greatest songwriting-performers of the prior three decades.
"For a half hour after I heard the news, I kept asking myself, 'Why would the University of Texas close the Cactus?’” The speaker is Slaid Cleaves, an Austin-based singer-songwriter, who'd performed many times on the stage of the Cactus Cafe. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, physical or electronic, without written permission of the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages within a critical article or review.Īnd to Doreen, Colin, and Kara, with love
0 kommentar(er)
