Blue Cactus: Cosmic Country From Chapel Hill

By Josie Taris,

Published February 21, 2020 at 12:28 PM EST

Courtesy of Blue Cactus

With a soulful blend of twang and spacey-rock tunes, the indie-country duo Blue Cactus is known for its country music sound. Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez released their EP “Finger on the Button” earlier this week with a titular track that they call their President’s Day anthem.

In the song, Stewart and Arnez express their frustration with the Trump administration. A dollar of every sale of the EP will be donated to Transplanting Traditions, a refugee-run community farm in Chapel Hill. Host Frank Stasio talks with Stewart and Arnez about the country music landscape.

Blue Cactus will be performing Friday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. at The Pinhook in Durham with special guests Chris Frisina and Christy Jean Smith, and on Saturday, April 18 at the The North Carolina Cuegrass Festival in Raleigh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=IYJKP2FjxGg

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Josie Taris

Josie Taris left her home in Fayetteville in 2014 to study journalism at Northwestern University. There, she took a class called Journalism of Empathy and found her passion in audio storytelling. She hopes every story she produces challenges the audience's preconceptions of the world. After spending the summer of 2018 working in communications for a Chicago nonprofit, she decided to come home to work for the station she grew up listening to. When she's not working, Josie is likely rooting for the Chicago Cubs or petting every dog she passes on the street.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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