Blue Cactus
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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.
Brimming with cracked-open honesty and electrified twang, Believer cements North Carolina’s Blue Cactus as a leading force in modern country and roots music. Led by songwriters Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, the group’s third album was written over a heavy two years following their critically lauded debut Blue Cactus and the glitz-and-glam sophomore album Stranger Again, as Stewart battled chronic health issues and the duo reassembled their musical careers in the wake of 2020. Feeling into an arid internal landscape, Stewart found microclimates of life as she hummed melodies and jotted down phrases. On Believer, Stewart’s instinct for cadence and lyricism evoke Emmylou Harris’ spacious storytelling and the dusty Southern folk melancholy of Gillian Welch while Arnez holds space for each song, tending the soil with layered folk textures, genre-hopping arrangements, and bittersweet hooks. The result is a shock of color and energy, Believer blooming as delicate, prickly, and bold as a field of wildflowers.
As a departure from earlier records, Believer features Stewart as Blue Cactus’ sole lead singer, her gossamer warble setting a foundation upon which the duo’s multiple vibrant musical communities build. Recording in the buzzy indie-folk scene of their home in the Piedmont of North Carolina, and later among the country sheen of Nashville, TN, the songs transform and journey through genre and mood. On the title track, a velvety core of vocals and picked acoustic guitar crackles with barely-contained urgency before bursting into a chorus of guitar feedback and dirge-like drumming, creating a modern folk epic on par with Big Thief’s “Not” and Songs: Ohia’s “Farewell Transmission.” The folky ramble “Resolution” plods and plucks with the help of Arnez’s delicate acoustic guitar picking, a locked-in Tennessee rhythm section, and close harmonies by Arnez and fellow Southern singer-songwriter Erin Rae. Stewart wrote the feisty rocker “Bite My Tongue,” featuring Kentucky bluegrass singer Brit Taylor and legendary Nashville session musician Russ Pahl (Kacey Musgraves, Kenny Rogers) in a whirlwind of inspiration, her innate ear for pop-country clap-backs becoming buoyant on a bed of Wurlitzer bursts and pedal steel glissades.
Alongside Nashville veterans like producer Whit Wright, cosmic jazz instrumentalist Rich Ruth (Third Man Records), and Hozier keyboardist Ryan Connors, Blue Cactus solidified songs like the folky ramble “Resolution,” and the expansive sonic meditation “Take All Day.” At home in North Carolina, Arnez and Stewart worked with a trusted group of friends and producer Saman Khoujinian (The Dead Tongues, Mountain Man) at Small Pond Farm in Pittsboro to build out Believer’s first single “This Kind of Rain,” a punchy, twangy country confessional that digs deep into fear and depression. Stewart’s pristinely sung lyrics, nodding to Reba McEntire’s tough-but-tender 90s hits, form the song’s heart.
In a touch of genius and good fortune for this multi-location recording spree, the Believer sessions came together cohesively with the help of Derek Garten, the mixing engineer behind Taylor Swift’s meticulous Taylor’s Version album reconstructions. The result is a mature and adventurous album showcasing Arnez and Stewart’s synergistic partnership, made unique by Stewart’s resilient heart-on-sleeve cowgirl storytelling and Arnez’s ear for both downhome and cosmic orchestration.