Cactus Music, Houston's favorite music store, turns 40

Facts about Cactus Music Houston's favorite record store, Cactus Music opened in 1975. Since then, it has weathered industry storms and literal storms over the decades but remains a Houston constant.

Click thru to learn a few facts about Cactus that regular shoppers might not even know about.... less Facts about Cactus Music Houston's favorite record store, Cactus Music opened in 1975. Since then, it has weathered industry storms and literal storms over the decades but remains a Houston constant.

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This month Cactus Music celebrates 40 years of business in Houston, weathering the whims of the music industry to bring Houstonians stacks upon stacks of records, compact discs, and even cassette tapes.

The record store began life not too far from where it stands now at 2110 Portsmouth. Longtime Houstonians might remember visiting its previous location at the corner of West Alabama and South Shepherd. It was an A&P grocery store before it was a record store.

That location is currently a Whole Earth Provision Co. location, next to Trader Joe's. Camping supplies and hiking boots have replaced concert posters, box sets, and dusty vinyl.

But Cactus' roots go back decades to Harold “Pappy” Daily’s outpost in the Heights that opened in 1946.

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“Our original store in the Heights, Daily's Record Ranch, regularly presented in-store events with the performers of The Louisiana Hayride including Hank Williams Sr.,” notes Cactus head honcho and co-owner Quinn Bishop.

Pappy also ran record labels, including D Records, which over the years would be the home to acts like a pre-outlaw Willie Nelson and regional polka and Tex-Mex acts. Another label, Starday, was the home of Roger Miller and George Jones among others.

Daily’s kids Bud and Don opened up the Shepherd location in 1975.

The Shepherd location had a VHS and DVD rental area that film director and Houston native Wes Anderson haunted while he was working the script and casting 2001’s “The Royal Tenenbaums.” He also reportedly discovered the music for “Rushmore” (The Kinks, John Lennon, The Creation) on the record racks at Cactus years before.

RELATED: Houston's Cactus Music to close its doors (2006)

The old location shuttered in early 2006 and with it went decades of memories, like an all-too-brief Jeff Buckley in-store performance in 1994 that is still the stuff of local legend.

The Daily brothers decided to retire from the record store business, which at the time wasn’t exactly doing so hot.

Don Daily, who played a major role in George Strait’s early recording career, died in 2013. Bud Daily passed in 2010 and helped get ZZ Top its first major record deal.

At the time of the original store’s closing, record stores across the country were shutting down in droves as people began to download their music instead of visiting their local record store to explore. That store closing sale was a boon for fans of rare movies and records.

The store wouldn’t stay closed for long, reopening at its Portsmouth digs in late 2007 just in time for the holiday season. Bishop and a team of investors, including the Saint Arnold Brewing Company, would own and operate the shop. Bishop has been with Cactus since the mid-‘80s.

Bishop was excited to tell the Houston Press’ John Nova Lomax at the time that the new shop was even about the same square footage as the old place, minus the video rental area.

In 2015 vinyl record sales are up as people are rediscovering the warmer sounds of vinyl after years of MP3s and streams. Vinyl sales totaled 9.2 million in 2014, according to a recent Nielsen report.

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Cactus has benefited from the vinyl explosion in a dramatic way. The store’s Record Ranch area features vinyl old and new and on the weekends it’s a hotbed of activity. Sometimes employees – some who are current Houston musicians in their own right like rapper Fat Tony – will play their favorite LPs while customers browse. On a rainy afternoon the Record Ranch is one of the coziest places in Houston, and music-themed artwork and photography lines the walls.

The annual Record Store Day event, held on the third Saturday in April, brings nearly a thousand people through the store’s doors to purchase limited edition 12-inches and 45s. Some people begin lining up outside Cactus a full 24 hours before the doors open for business.

“Record Store Day has been remarkably transformative for our business in that it has helped us reconnect with older vinyl fans who never lost their affection for the format as well as getting younger music fans excited about building their collections,” Bishop says.

An unsung feature of Cactus is the dollar LP section where collectors can fill out their burgeoning vinyl kingdoms with gently-used albums.

Cactus of course still sells compact discs for customers haven’t already reinvested in a turntable, and shoppers can still buy DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

In-store performances are the norm over the weekends on Cactus’ small stage, with complimentary Saint Arnold beer available for legal drinkers to imbibe in while seeing the likes of Steve Earle and the Wild Moccasins. Bishop has said that in-store shows usually increase sales by a sizable percentage.

The list of acts that have played the Cactus stage across the past 40 years – The Ramones, The Police, Patti Smith, Townes Van Zandt, The Chieftains, Alice Cooper, Phillip Glass, and Sleater-Kinney – is nothing to snort at.

Robert Earl Keen played inside the store around the time he released his “Gringo Honeymoon” album and the store has always supported Texas country artists.

This coming weekend on Saturday, October 17, the store will host a book signing by locally-bred, nationally-revered author Shea Serrano, an art exhibit opening by Carlos Hernandez, and take part in something called Cassette Store Day.