Bought the Farm [IMPORT]

Captain Tractor

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 1, 1997)
• Original Release Date: August 1, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Square Dog
• ASIN: B00001X5CD
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #371,979 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captain Tractor will never catch on in America...., December 21, 2001

By	"delfin9299" (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

....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 with

The 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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Tractor's best to date, November 1, 1999

By	Brandon Scalf (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting and (Largely) Undiscovered Gem, December 31, 2002

By	Martin P. McCarthy (North Chili, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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").