Sleepy Cat Records Presents
Featuring Chris Frisina, T. Gold, & Blue Cactus
Saturday, August 7th, 2021
Elkin’s Hidden Amphitheater – Elkin, NC
Set Time: 2:00pm

Sleepy Cat Records is a partnership between Gabriel Anderson and Saman Khoujinian, built to support their art and the art of their friends. Our wellspring of creative work began in 2008, at a high school in Miami, FL. Soon afterward, Saman moved to North Carolina to study philosophy. Gabe eventually dropped out of college in Florida and moved to NC (Carrboro, specifically) as well. Having found a new home in the Triangle music scene, we set out on an immersive near-decade of music-making. Several project names, several records, singles, splits, videos, and countless collaborations with folks who have remained a broad and enriching chosen family. 2019 saw the founding of Sleepy Cat Records. The label is, in the first place, a home-base from which to nurture and grow our creative community. In addition to the traditional role of releasing music from artists whose work we find meaningful, we’re deep divers in the process of generating music from top to bottom – production, session work, audio engineering/mixing/mastering, art direction and design.

Chris Frisina:
Chris Frisina was born in the rustic town of Olean, New York to a family of northeastern wiseacres and intelligent hillbillies who remain hell bent on living full, rich lives despite brutal winters in a persistent economic downturn. Runt of the litter, according to his only sister.

Not one to commit easily, he skirted the compulsive hunting and fishing tradition held close to his father’s heart – instead cultivating a sensitivity more suited to artists and vagabonds. In illustrations, his pen swirl meanders towards an eventual finish only understood upon completion – just as in his music.

 In songwriting, Chris uses what can only be explained as a genetic link to ancestral angst and talent to search for his place in a world out of sync.  Part unquiet soul. Part young fool. Chris hopes to share his observations on our shared journey through life in mutual search of something pure.

T. Gold:
Based in Carrboro, NC, T. Gold is led by Saman and Gabe- founders of Sleepy Cat Records.

The folk music of T.Gold is full of plaintive melodies, roomy production, and pleasantly sparse instrumentation: gentle strums, minimal percussion, delicate harmonies, the odd horn or flute. The result is a collection of sunset-hued slow songs with a rootsy bent and occasional references to tech-related anxiety.

Blue Cactus:
Blue Cactus makes Cosmic Americana music, blending classic country sounds with vintage ‘70s pop sensibilities and a sobering sense of honesty. Led by long-time collaborators Mario Arnez and Steph Stewart, the Chapel Hill duo creates songs that range from gritty honky tonk to tender, heartbreaking balladry, harkening comparisons eclectic and iconic as Bobbie Gentry, Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie.

After making a name for themselves with their dusty-yet-glowing self-titled debut in 2017, Chapel Hill duo Blue Cactus is returning with their second LP called Stranger Again, slated for release May 7th, 2021. In this highly anticipated follow-up, Blue Cactus lay an emboldened claim upon that space between the comfort of classic country and the glamor of 70s rock—a luminous space between earth and sky.