Katy Boyd

Marty
Born and raised in a small town in Ontario, Marty Atkinson grew up around tobacco farms and music. He followed his guitar playing older brother to southern California at 17, and by the time Marty was 18 he was already touring the western USA with a well known Bay Area rock band.

The road took Marty across the country and to Mexico. Mexico became the song writing inspiration for his new band Cactus Choir (original members include Cal Ball, Dave Ristrim, and Scott Smith). With Marty's beautiful heartfelt songs and the bands soaring 3 and 4 part harmonies, Cactus Choir quickly came to the attention of Atlantic Records. Cactus Choir signed with Atlantic in the early 1990's. In 1995 Marty landed a song writing/publishing contract with EMI in 1995, and in 1997 the band went from Atlantic to Curb Universal. The Curb album Cactus Choir was in the Billboard Hot Country Chart top 100 for 8 weeks in 1998, and many in Nashville said it was one of the finest record produced in Nashville for many years.   After Marty and Curb parted ways, Marty continued to make both Cactus Choir and great solo albums.


Katy

A native Californian, Katy Boyd won a prestigious song writing contest in Northern California the year she left university which brought her to the attention of Virgin Records in the UK. Without hesitation Katy packed her bags and headed to England to pursue her record deal. The Virgin deal dried up after a few months, and Katy settled into an English family life.  

 

Fast forward to 2004, Katy was back playing music full time and landed a record deal with Goldtop Recordings/Jungle Records. She has toured Europe and the US, played some of the biggest music festivals in the world (Glastonbury, Bath Festival, Brighton Fringe, and the very prestigious Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival – all in the UK). Her debut album Ain’t No Fairy Tale with English fiddle player Ben Wain was in the top 50 of the RMR Folk Chart several times in the summer of 2010. Her solo album Paper Hearts was in the RMR Roots Country top 30 for much of 2012. A single from Paper Hearts, 'Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels', was in the top 20 indie country chart from the end of January 2012 through the first half of 2013. 

Marty and Katy formed Blue Cactus Choir in 2013 combining all their past experience onto a folk/singer songwriter duo with wonderful songs to sing, and great storied to tell.