Kevin Dehan on Gordon Lightfoot – The Way I Feel

Another longtime site favorite tackles the Hidden Gems series today. Kevin Dehan has been rounding up country calm with classic charms under the name Cactus Lee for years now and his latest is one of 2026’s smoothest and most solid offerings. Kevin dug into his own collection for a record that hasn’t gotten its due, picking Gordon Lightfoot’s early outing The Way I Feel. While the songwriter might be more well known for his ’70’s “Sundown”-era and shipwreck laments, Dehan reaches back to his ‘60s material for inspiration.

“I was introduced to this album by Billy Horton who runs a studio in Central Texas and recorded a lot of my latest album “Lee’s Dream.”  In between listening to playback from the day we would talk about music and he would put on specific songs that we discussed.  Whether he was trying to nudge me one way or another I’m not sure, but it definitely opened my eyes to more of the old school production world.  This album seemed to have a lot of new sound ideas I hadn’t heard before.”

“I think this is a hidden gem record mostly because I don’t think people know about Lightfoot beyond his shipwreck song,” notes Dehan.  “Or at least the image of him in the 70s with a beard.  He looks like the dad from Malcolm in the Middle on the cover, clean shaved and fresh with a tie on. The music reflects that look, he is getting more adventurous in the studio and you can hear the sound of the sixties creeping in here.  This is his second record; his first record is also really great but is more folksy and focuses mainly on him and his guitar.  On this one you hear more studio production going on. I also love his lyrics, they are both very poignant, and pretty simple.”

Kevin promises, “This album has definitely slowly been seeping into my studio life and I imagine will be affecting more of my output in the future, in both songwriting style and production.”

I too am often more familiar with Lightfoot’s later works and the persona that would grow around his ‘70s work, but like many artists it’s great to get the perspective of how he grew. Dehan’s choice has me going back through the beginnings of Lightfoot’s work and finding gems along the way. The record also has the charms of being one you can pickup pretty easily without breaking the bank; a budget bin treasure that’s worth well more than the stick price. Meanwhile, Dehan’s new album, Lee’s Dream, is out now from Western Vinyl, one of 2026’s best.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.