Nevertheless, opener ‘This Love’s Gonna Fly’, title track ’24 hrs. The songs were as strong as ever, but there was less of the eclectic variety of their debut. Produced by Randy Scruggs, a seasoned country producer who had worked with Waylon Jennings and Emmylou Harris, it was still a great album. 7 Days a Week’ represented a shift to a more polished country-rock sound. By the time of the release of their second album in 1994 the band had undergone three changes in personnel, although the heartbeat of the band, Kirby, the Goleman brothers and Tramp remained.
The band toured extensively in the USA and Europe, including an appearance at the 1994 Cambridge Folk Festival, earning themselves a reputation as a potent live act. Reviewing the album on its release The Los Angeles Times noted that “At a time when Nashville is offering pat, if often immensely popular, recycling of the polished ’70s Southern California rock sound epitomized by the Eagles…the Cactus Brothers album represents a far more adventurous and unpredictable approach to crossbreeding country and roots-rock” With such an array of styles it’s perhaps unsurprising that radio schedulers didn’t know where to place them. The energetic live favourite ‘Swimmin’ Hole’ is pure cowpunk, whilst ‘One More Night (With You)’ previews the more mellow country-rock sound of their second album. Ballads like ‘Our Love’ and ‘Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl’ further emphasise the band’s versatility. The Everly Brothers’ ‘The Price of Love’ is the album’s second cover song to receive the rock treatment. ‘Devil Wind’ a fairly straightforward rock song sits alongside traditional folks tunes ‘Blackberry Blossom’ and ‘Fisher’s Hornpipe’. The two tracks preview the album as a whole as it intertwines a rough-edged rock sound with traditional country. The song has much more of a traditional country feel with Will Goleman’s banjo to the fore.
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This, followed by ‘Crazy Heart’, probably their best-known song featured in the George Strait movie ‘Pure Country’. The album opens with a stomping version of Merle Travis’ ‘Sixteen Tons’, a country classic given the rock treatment. The Cactus Brothers self-titled first album was released in 1993. Although others came and went, it was these four that formed the heart of the The Cactus Brothers.
Also in that band, and later the Cactus Brothers, were brothers John and Will Goleman, who were also the sons of songwriters, and a multi-instrumentalist who went by the splendid name of Tramp. Walk The West were founded on similar lines. However, he was also interested in rock music and was greatly influenced by the way in which Nashville cowpunks Jason and The Scorchers married the two sounds together. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard were regular visitors to the house and so Paul grew up steeped in country music. Kirby senior was also a well-known country music session man and touring guitarist. Paul Kirby, the main songwriter and singer in the band, was the son of songwriter Dave Kirby whose best-known song was ‘Is Anybody Going to San Antone’. The baby had outgrown its mother and so Walk The West was ended and the Cactus Brothers became the main focus. The Cactus Brothers started as a side-project, but gradually they found they were getting a better response than their main band. The nucleus of the band were in a band called Walk The West, who released one well-received album in 1986. The Cactus Brothers began almost by accident. After their second album they were dropped by Capitol EMI and the band disintegrated as members went off to do other things. With radio exposure so vital in the US at that time, the Cactus Brothers were deemed to be too country for rock radio and too rock for country radio.
Those two albums, whilst critically lauded, suffered a fate familiar to many bands who dared to stray from the mainstream, namely they bombed. The Cactus Brothers were a Nashville based band who released two excellent albums in the 1990s before folding.
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