The Tractors Albums (8)
What The Critics Say
Since the ten songs and 39 minutes of music on Trade Union, the Tractors' fourth non-holiday album, sound like they could have been recorded by a competent Southern bar band in a weekend, it may seem surprising that this is the group's follow-up to Fast Girl, which appeared in 2001 (there was also a Christmas set, The Big Night, a mere six and a half years ago), and, from bandleader Steve Ripley's extensive liner notes, it sounds like he and his fellow musicians have been working away at it at the Church Studio in Tulsa, OK, all these years. (Although 22 musicians and singers appear on the disc, it's not clear who besides Ripley is a permanent member of the Tractors at this point, but then it's hard to keep a working band together when it's not actually working.) The history of popular music is full of eccentric auteurs laboring away year after year in search of musical perfection, from Brian Wilson and John Fogerty to Tom Scholz and Lucinda Williams, and Ripley seems to be bidding to join their ranks. In his case, however, perfection seems to consist in coming up with the ideal off-the-cuff-sounding first-take-like "feel" performance, so rough it has count-ins and breakdowns left on the track. Ripley wants to re-create the swampy history of Tulsa country/blues/rock, à la Leon Russell and J.J. Cale, both of whom, not coincidentally, turn up on the record sounding very much like themselves. And, it must be said, he very largely succeeds. His idols, dating back to the days of the Sun Studio, may have turned out this sort of thing a lot quicker, but Ripley has come up with tracks that sound like they might have been made in the mid-'50s or the late '60s. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Tractors Christmas'
Release Date 4/1/2002
Tracks 12
Label BMG Special Products
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
A fine slab of NRBQ/Dave Edmunds-style country-inflected rock & roll, 2001's Fast Girl is another typically enjoyable album from the Tractors. Like their namesake farm equipment, the Tractors are never flashy, and they're built more for comfort than speed. Goofy rockers like "Babalou" (nothing to do with Desi Arnaz, of course), two-step ballads like "It's a Beautiful Thing," and honky tonk covers like the Tractors' version of Moon Mullican's classic "Don't Ever Take My Picture Down" blend into an eclectic but never scattershot blend of country, R&B, and early rock influences. In these surroundings, even stylistic experiments like the extended jam that closes the otherwise ultra-poppy "Ready to Cry" make perfect sense. Fast Girl is not the Tractors' best album, but coming as it did after a nearly four-year layoff, it shows that the group hadn't lost anything in its downtime. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
'Farmers in a Changing World'
Release Date 11/3/1998
Tracks 10
Label Arista
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Four years after their acclaimed debut, the Tractors finally delivered their full-fledged follow-up, Farmers in a Changing World, in late 1998. (A holiday album, Have Yourself a Tractors Christmas, appeared in 1995, but that doesn't count as a sequel to The Tractors). During that time, contemporary country became even more infatuated with the pop-country crossover, as the success of Shania Twain and Faith Hill proved. The title of the album hints at that situation, but the Tractors ignore such trends, choosing to synthesize a plethora of American roots musics into a distinctive sound -- they're farmers in a changing world. Sure, they remain rooted in country, but they try a bunch of other things, including soul, New Orleans R&B, and rockabilly with "The Elvis Thing," backed by no less than Scotty Moore, James Burton, and DJ Fontana. What ties it all together is Steve Ripley's fine songwriting and the band's excellent taste in covers; the material is so good that the eclecticism doesn't seem jumbled -- it makes sense. It may have taken a while for the album to have been recorded, but the wait was worth it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Have Yourself a Tractors Christmas'
Release Date 10/10/1995
Tracks 12
Label Arista
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Country Christmas gets wrapped up boogie blues rockin' style thanks to The Tractors' Have Yourself a Tractor's Christmas. A little manipulative, perhaps, to redo their hit single "Baby Likes to Rock It" under the guise of "Santa Claus Is Comin' (In a Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train)" but, with the exception of a coupl'a slow cookers, this blend of originals and trads rolls right on down the track. ~ Roch Parisien, All Music Guide
