Cactus Lee

Cactus Lee is a blues, country and folk project from Austin, Texas, built around the songwriter Kevin Dehan, appearing at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds on this visit.

Cactus Lee began in 2019 as a home recording project for Kevin Dehan, and it has played local honky tonks around Dehan's hometown of Austin. It has since grown into a group with rotating members and pick-up bands, and has played New York and Los Angeles several times, as well as holding a residency in Chicago as part of the Cosmic Country showcase.

The new album, Lee's Dream, is the project's second for Western Vinyl. It grew out of a monthlong solo tour through small Midwestern and Southern cities, during which Dehan wrote songs in the van between shows. A visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, where a reproduction of the basement Guy Clark used to smoke, repair guitars and record in, inspired the first song written for the record. The songs were recorded at Fort Horton Studios in Wyldwood, Texas, where Billy Horton encouraged classic country songwriting and production choices, as he has with Charley Crockett and Theo Lawrence.

Hyde Park Book Club, at Headingley Lane in Leeds, is a venue that mainly hosts pop, rock and indie concerts, along with some theatre. The Leeds date places this blues, country and folk act in that setting.