Search - Captain Tractor :: Bought the Farm

The Tractor's best to date

Brandon Scalf | Seattle, WA USA | 11/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Bought the Farm is their most consistently strong album to date. Captain Tractor is best at doing covers of old sea chanties, like "what do you do with a drunken sailor" but their original songs were always a bit weak, something you wade through to get to the cool songs. But, on this albums, all songs are equally great. I especially like Dublin Lullaby, and Frozen Puck to the Head. I'd highly recommend checking out the Tractor, if you like groups with a sense of humor, like They Might Be Giants, or Dead Milkmen. And it's worth checking out their older albums too."

Captain Tractor will never catch on in America....

J. Kesse | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | 12/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"....But who cares? You may never hear their songs on American radio, as long as the big record labels get their way, but that doesn't mean that you have to take what the guys with the money give you! Enter Captain Tractor. These guys began their career as a bar band in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Their music is generally rock-based with interesting flavors of Celtic, country, and folk thrown in. I am also a Barenaked Ladies fan and I see a lot of parallels between the two groups. Think of Captain Tractor as BNL if they (BNL) were from the Western part of Canada. The songwriting runs the gamut from the emotional to the hilarious and there are four songs on "Bought The Farm" that stand out in my mind when it comes to this description. There are two very serious, almost heartwrenching songs: 1000 Goodbyes, and Mary Donnel. I played these two songs for a few friends of mine and they both remarked about what great songs they were, these were people who had never heard of Captain Tractor to begin withThe album is not completely serious, however. CT shows off their playful side with such songs as "GoToHell" and "Frozen Puck To The Head." The latter is perhaps the greatest hockey-related love song ever written. If you are looking for new music to try out, and you want to look farther than the Top 40, give Captain Tractor a shot. I guarantee that they are one of the more unique bands you will ever hear. Bought The Farm is a good place to start, but you must not stop at this one album. CT has 5 other albums, a box set, a CD-ROM and a music video compilation for you to check out as well."

An Interesting and (Largely) Undiscovered Gem

Martin P. McCarthy | North Chili, New York | 12/31/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Captain Tractor's "Bought the Farm" mixes elements of Celtic (the large part) and ska (a very small part) and fashions music that mainly features the bar as the setting.The songs are inventive and fun, retrospective and wistful and, even at times, bitter. Much like the variations in alcohol (if you will).The highlights of this album include "1,000 Goodbyes," "Someday," "Dublin Lullabye," (featuring the lyric, "We drink and fight/drink and fight/ and drink fight some more"), "Frozen Puck to the Head," (with the protagonist being a hockey goalie who is in love), the bitter "40 Miles of Pain" and the ever playful cover of "If I Were a Rich Man" (from the musical "Fiddler on the Roof")."