End of an Era

I just read that Cactus Music and Video will be closing at the end of next month.

What sad news for Houston.

Cactus is a great music store where one can easily spend a few hours just browsing through all the different kinds of cool (and often hard to find) music and videos that they regularly stock.

The store has also been a mainstay for local music fans in Houston for decades. It has also been something of a physical landmark for Houstonians with its famous "cactus" sign near the intersection of Shepherd and West Alabama.

In-store performances from both local and nationally known artists have been a regular feature of the store. They always have a sizeable selection of recordings available from local Houston artists and bands. No matter what your musical tastes are you can probably find something that will interest you at Cactus.

For many Houstonians Cactus is not just a store but an experience. It is located right next to a Bookstop that was once the Alabama Theater. When I was in High School I would go down every weekend to Shepherd to hit the trifecta of Bookstop, Cactus and the now defunct Record Rack across the street. Cactus is still a place I enjoy visiting about once a week to just look for some cool and interesting music.

I've usually found the staff to be very knowledgeable and courteous. They seem to have a lot of fun as well which I can relate to being a former record store clerk myself.

Cactus will indeed be missed...it is the certainly the end of an era.

You can read more about the impending closing here. Some commentary from a local music blog can be found here.

An earlier post on Cactus from this blog can be found here.