Cactus Lee Follows Up Caravan w/ Big Red for the New Year

Upon first hearing the works of Kevin Dehan aka Cactus Lee, I was immediately hooked and suddenly felt like I found another songwriter that paralleled some of my previous heroes such as Dylan, Paul Simon, Townes, Waits and many others that shared the same romantic vein in poetry and song. The Texas born musician previously occupied outfits such as Love Links with wife Sherry LeBlanc and the multi-genre group Fozlur with bandmate Cari Palazzolo before his 2019 debut “Texas Yard Sale” under the fabulous moniker “Cactus Lee'“. Dehan is a cowboy’s cowboy, a radical rodeo poet and a country magician whose songwriting is dedicated, divine, curious, heartbreakingly accurate and at times simple and splendidly perfect. Texas is such a special place for music and culture and has demonstrated that for decades and generations. Sometimes a person has to live before they can write such music and in Dehan’s case the listeners can genuinely feel those scars and their unique design. They can hear those troubled tumbleweeds scratch across highway roads as they transition from one lane to the other, never-minding the solid, yellow lines.

Back in October Dehan released his praised LP, “Caravan” with the fine folks over at ORG Music and Aquarium Drunkard. With tracks such as “Southwestern Bell”, “East & West” and the tile track “Caravan”, the album explores the isolation of friendly shadows curated in such a way that they almost become an audience. Themes of empty bars seemingly occupied in a honky-tonk Bardo outside of town. “Caravan” is a historical response from the heart and is expressed in a fashion that already makes it a timeless classic… Green means go, yellow means slow and red means Dehan has already followed up “Caravan” with a brand new release entitled “Big Red” as we come to a close for the month of November. A mesmerizing collection of songs, “Big Red” is an exciting celebration of mid-western mountains moved by hand, or simply making it out of bed for a cup of coffee to start the day. Dehan’s ability to craft and curate songs for the human spirit is magnificent and often times seems unchallenged. It’s seamless and blends an absolutely perfect mediation, not to mention we haven’t seen a watermelon properly grace an album cover since BB King’s classic LP, “Indianola Mississippi Seeds Translucent”.