The Cactus Blossoms: You’re Dreaming

If the Coen Brothers made a movie set in a quirky 1950s Western town, You’re Dreaming could be its soundtrack. On the debut Cactus Blossoms studio album, brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum conjure a world moody and vivid, as visual as it is aural. Its 11 songs— from the tender “Queen of Them All” to the rowdy “Clown Collector”— evoke smoke-filled barrooms, cowboy campfires, and lonely motel rooms. Recorded live with the musicians playing and singing together in one room, You’re Dreaming is a cocktail of classic country- western and rockabilly delivered with the brothers’ pitch-perfect harmonies. Drums, bass, and rhythm guitar barrel headlong through “Change Your Ways or Die,” punctuated by silvery bursts of lead guitar. In just two minutes a rollicking cover of “No More Crying the Blues” (an Alton and Jimmy song for Sun Records) packs a punch. On “Powder Blue,” the soaring vocals never seem to try too hard, even when coaxing six syllables from the word “blue.” Traditional playing and sweet harmonies dance a do-si-do on the earnest “Adios, Maria,” with its promise “I’ll meet you in paradise, if the good Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise.” A classic country sentiment, indeed.