The Tractors

All Music Guide:

The Tractors were one of the country-rock bands to benefit from the modern country boom of the early '90s. With their good-time boogie and rootsy country-rock, the Tractors were able to send their eponymous debut to platinum status. Although based in Tulsa, all of the members of the Tractors -- guitarist Steve Ripley, bassist Ron Getman, vocalist Casey Van Beek, keyboardist Walt Richmond, and drummer Jamie Oldaker -- were well-known Nashville session musicians before they came to prominence in the early '90s. The group landed a contract with Arista Records and released their self-titled debut album in the summer of 1994. Supported by the hit single "Baby Likes to Rock It," the record became a Top Ten country hit, eventually selling over two million copies. Instead of following the debut with a standard second record, the band released a holiday album, Have Yourself a Tractors Christmas, in the fall of 1995. Like its predecessor, the Christmas record was a hit, although it didn't come close to replicating the chart status of The Tractors. The bandmembers took most of 1996 off, spending time with their families and working on side projects, as lead songwriter Steve Ripley prepared material for the Tractors' third album, Farmers in a Changing World, which was finally released in the autumn of 1998. Fast Girl followed in 2001, but then there was an eight-year wait before Trade Union appeared in 2009.

Wikipedia:

The Tractors is an American country rock band composed of a loosely associated group of musicians, headed by guitarist Steve Ripley. Under the band's original lineup, The Tractors was signed to Arista Records in 1994, releasing their self-titled debut album that year; the album went on to become the highest-selling country album of 1994, even though it only produced one Top 40 hit on the Billboard country charts. To date, the band has followed up with five more albums.

Since their foundation, most of the band's original members have moved on to separate projects, although they often collaborate with frontman Ripley on The Tractors' more recent recordings. Ripley is the only official member of the group; he has stated that The Tractors is more of a "state of mind", and the band contains a largely undefined cast of unofficial contributors.

Biography

The Tractors were formed in 1988, with the original lineup comprising Ron Getman (electric guitar, slide guitar), Jamie Oldaker (drums), Walt Richmond (bass vocals, keyboards), Steve Ripley (guitar, lead vocals), and Casey van Beek (bass guitar, baritone vocals). All five members had previously been backing musicians for other notable artists, including Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, and Leonard Cohen. Oldaker had also worked with Bob Seger and Eric Clapton.

By 1990, the group was signed to Arista Records, a newly-formed record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1994, the group released its self-titled debut album. The album, which produced the single "Baby Likes to Rock It", soon became the fastest-selling debut album from a country group to go platinum; it also became the top-selling country music album of 1994. That album was soon followed by a Christmas album called Have Yourself a Tractors Christmas.

The group's true follow-up, Farmers in a Changing World, was released in 1998. The band's members, except for Ripley, soon departed for other projects, although they and Ripley remained close friends, and made cameo appearances on subsequent albums. Ripley, along with several other musicians, released the next Tractors album, Fast Girl, on Audium Entertainment in 2001. After Fast Girl, the Tractors left Audium as well, and soon formed its own label, Boy Rocking Records. In 2009 "Trade Union" was released on E1.

Sound

The Tractors achieved their distinctive sound in several ways, most notably from the use of only one microphone, or recording a song in only one take. Ripley often constructs guitars and cords for use in the band.