A few years back, the musical spirits of Hank Williams and Chuck Berry, Elvis and Buck Owens, Bob Wills and James Brown converged in Steve Ripley's fertile mind at a legendary studio called The Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The tornado he conjured up was called The Tractors and, with a Grammy-nominated multiplatinum album that was the fastest-selling country group debut in history, stormed across America. One of country music's most unlikely success stories, The Tractors weren't young and they weren't pretty but by mining Ripley's roots they helped fuel a musical revolution called Americana.
Since then, country has once again gone fallow, with fields of schmaltzy pop and masquerades in cowboy hats. Fortunately, The Tractors are back to reclaim the land, ready to harvest what they first sowed, with Fast Girl (Audium Records), released April, 2001, their fourth album and first since 1998.
"The musical stew out there is overcooked," says singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Ripley. "We're mixing a fresh stew from ingredients taken from a time when country wasn't there yet and rock 'n' roll was just becoming something out of a mix of gospel, R&B, blues, hillbilly and New Orleans boogie woogie. It's a time when everything was new. That's as good as it ever got, at least for me. That good-time sound is what rings my bell."
That pure and primal sound is driven home by The Tractors on Fast Girl, which features guitar icon James Burton and the renowned Leon Russell, from the pop culture flashback "Babalou" and the Western swing of "Can't Get Nowhere" to the passionate country of "It's A Beautiful Thing" and the roadhouse rock of the title track, the emotional touchstone of "Higher Ground" to the outrageous picaresque tale of "A Little Place Of Our Own." A continuation of The Tractors not a repeat, notes Ripley, Fast Girl does not utilize the previous set lineup but rather a revolving roster of musicians who collectively comprise what from the beginning has been Ripley's unique vision: "The Tractors are a state of mind, a place I enter into to make the records. My goal is for the records to take the listener to that same place. It's a serious place and, at the same time, there's definitely a party going on."
Oklahoma native Ripley grew up on a family farm, where he drove his first tractor, before picking up a guitar and heading out on the local honky-tonk circuit. Eventually, he took on engineering chores for Leon Russell and later produced Freddy Fender, Western swing king Johnny Lee Wills and an album for Roy Clark and Gatemouth Brown. He not-so-by-the-way also played guitar on tour and on record for Bob Dylan (including his 1981 classic Shot Of Love), J.J. Cale and Russell. In addition, he designed his own line of guitars for the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder, Jimmy Buffett and John Hiatt. "I've had only three regular jobs and I was fired from each of them almost immediately," he says with a laugh. "I've driven a tractor and I've played guitar. That's what I know how to do."
Then, in 1987, he gave up his peripatetic ways and came back home to Tulsa, where R&B and country, New Orleans and Texas, swing and rock 'n' roll have historically met and prospered. He took over Russell's studio and a couple years later began to bring to fruition his vision. "The Beatles listened to the same music I did growing up. I've been to George Harrison's house and all he could talk about is James Burton. There was a time when country was a rockin' thing, when you could hear on one radio station Hank and Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Merle, Buck and Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. That's the kind of music I wanted to make again. But it wasn't easy to get at what that would actually be."
Ensconced at The Church Studio, it took Ripley five years to create The Tractors' self-titled debut album. Released in 1994, there were few commercial expectations. "We were not expected to be a hit," says the down-to-earth Ripley. "But we were new and fresh for radio, at the right place at the right time. We proved there was still hope for anyone making a great record."
Powered by the single "Baby Likes To Rock It," The Tractors hit Top 10 country, plowed past double platinum and became the #1 selling debut country album of the year. Earning acclaim far beyond the confines of country, the album won a front-page rave in USA Today and an "A" from Entertainment Weekly. The band was nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best Country Performance By A Group for "Baby Likes To Rock It" and "Tryin' To Get To New Orleans"), a TNN/Music City News Award as a Star Of Tomorrow (Vocal Duo Or Group) and three Academy Of Country Music Awards (Top Vocal Group, Top New Vocal Group and Album Of The Year), and won the Country Music Association's Video Of The Year Award for "Baby Likes To Rock It." Outselling established major acts such as Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, The Tractors were Arista Nashville's top artist.
A band of veteran musicians playing neo-traditionalist retro-whatever country-something, they had succeeded without flash or gimmicks. "There's a difference between being the thing and trying to be the thing. Hank Williams sang like Hank Williams; he wasn't pretending to be someone else. We are who we are." They weren't from Nashville either. "We had nothing against Nashville. We took comfort in being accepted by the town. One reason we weren't there was because we couldn't afford to move there."
In 1995, The Tractors toured and released for the holidays Have Yourself A Tractors Christmas, which featured "Santa Claus Boogie." Over the next couple years, they also contributed to the acclaimed tribute albums Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) and Stone Country: Country Artists Perform The Songs Of The Rolling Stones. But by the time their true follow-up was issued, Farmers In A Changing World (1998), country music had changed course and headed to the shores of pop. The album cover proclaimed "Same 'Great' Sound," and it was, but the music industry had closed its ears to The Tulsa Shuffle. In the case of Arista Nashville, it was in the process of shutting its doors as well.
"I had no intention of making some other kind of music as The Tractors," says Ripley. "We sound like we do every time we play. I wanted a label that had faith in and enthusiasm for that sound--and Audium did." Given his Tractorspeak credo that "the harder you try to do something the less likely you are to do it," its surprising Fast Girl took only eight months to record. "Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this," he adds with a smile. "As it turns out, Fast Girl is closer to my original vision than any of the previous albums."
Filled with the unexpected magic of first takes and the truth of false starts, Fast Girl employs modern technology and Ripley's dogged persistence to recreate the "one mike, one room, no time" atmosphere of the '40s, '50s and early '60s--just like on his favorite records. "The studio is my life. I've been coming here just about every day for 13 years. To a lot of artists, recording is the enemy and they live to tour. We record most of the time but go play sometimes."
What he has tried to do with The Tractors is make records that will last just as long as his favorites. "I'm all for having hits and I think of radio when I write songs but today's hits are disposable, only for these times. I want to approach a timeless quality. I want people to pull out a Tractors album years from now and for it to still sound great. I want The Tractors to be left standing when the dust settles."
Whatever Americana means, Ripley surely knows what it sounds like because he's experienced the life it reflects. "I'm not a cowboy. I'm a farmer. I just keep the wheel in the furrow and keep moving on. You get on the tractor and go round in circles and at some point the field gets plowed."
In Steve Ripley's case, that field bears some mighty powerful roots, which thankfully have yielded yet another new musical crop from The Tractors.
Since then, country has once again gone fallow, with fields of schmaltzy pop and masquerades in cowboy hats. Fortunately, The Tractors are back to reclaim the land, ready to harvest what they first sowed, with Fast Girl (Audium Records), released April, 2001, their fourth album and first since 1998.
"The musical stew out there is overcooked," says singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Ripley. "We're mixing a fresh stew from ingredients taken from a time when country wasn't there yet and rock 'n' roll was just becoming something out of a mix of gospel, R&B, blues, hillbilly and New Orleans boogie woogie. It's a time when everything was new. That's as good as it ever got, at least for me. That good-time sound is what rings my bell."
That pure and primal sound is driven home by The Tractors on Fast Girl, which features guitar icon James Burton and the renowned Leon Russell, from the pop culture flashback "Babalou" and the Western swing of "Can't Get Nowhere" to the passionate country of "It's A Beautiful Thing" and the roadhouse rock of the title track, the emotional touchstone of "Higher Ground" to the outrageous picaresque tale of "A Little Place Of Our Own." A continuation of The Tractors not a repeat, notes Ripley, Fast Girl does not utilize the previous set lineup but rather a revolving roster of musicians who collectively comprise what from the beginning has been Ripley's unique vision: "The Tractors are a state of mind, a place I enter into to make the records. My goal is for the records to take the listener to that same place. It's a serious place and, at the same time, there's definitely a party going on."
Oklahoma native Ripley grew up on a family farm, where he drove his first tractor, before picking up a guitar and heading out on the local honky-tonk circuit. Eventually, he took on engineering chores for Leon Russell and later produced Freddy Fender, Western swing king Johnny Lee Wills and an album for Roy Clark and Gatemouth Brown. He not-so-by-the-way also played guitar on tour and on record for Bob Dylan (including his 1981 classic Shot Of Love), J.J. Cale and Russell. In addition, he designed his own line of guitars for the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder, Jimmy Buffett and John Hiatt. "I've had only three regular jobs and I was fired from each of them almost immediately," he says with a laugh. "I've driven a tractor and I've played guitar. That's what I know how to do."
Then, in 1987, he gave up his peripatetic ways and came back home to Tulsa, where R&B and country, New Orleans and Texas, swing and rock 'n' roll have historically met and prospered. He took over Russell's studio and a couple years later began to bring to fruition his vision. "The Beatles listened to the same music I did growing up. I've been to George Harrison's house and all he could talk about is James Burton. There was a time when country was a rockin' thing, when you could hear on one radio station Hank and Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Merle, Buck and Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. That's the kind of music I wanted to make again. But it wasn't easy to get at what that would actually be."
Ensconced at The Church Studio, it took Ripley five years to create The Tractors' self-titled debut album. Released in 1994, there were few commercial expectations. "We were not expected to be a hit," says the down-to-earth Ripley. "But we were new and fresh for radio, at the right place at the right time. We proved there was still hope for anyone making a great record."
Powered by the single "Baby Likes To Rock It," The Tractors hit Top 10 country, plowed past double platinum and became the #1 selling debut country album of the year. Earning acclaim far beyond the confines of country, the album won a front-page rave in USA Today and an "A" from Entertainment Weekly. The band was nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best Country Performance By A Group for "Baby Likes To Rock It" and "Tryin' To Get To New Orleans"), a TNN/Music City News Award as a Star Of Tomorrow (Vocal Duo Or Group) and three Academy Of Country Music Awards (Top Vocal Group, Top New Vocal Group and Album Of The Year), and won the Country Music Association's Video Of The Year Award for "Baby Likes To Rock It." Outselling established major acts such as Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, The Tractors were Arista Nashville's top artist.
A band of veteran musicians playing neo-traditionalist retro-whatever country-something, they had succeeded without flash or gimmicks. "There's a difference between being the thing and trying to be the thing. Hank Williams sang like Hank Williams; he wasn't pretending to be someone else. We are who we are." They weren't from Nashville either. "We had nothing against Nashville. We took comfort in being accepted by the town. One reason we weren't there was because we couldn't afford to move there."
In 1995, The Tractors toured and released for the holidays Have Yourself A Tractors Christmas, which featured "Santa Claus Boogie." Over the next couple years, they also contributed to the acclaimed tribute albums Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) and Stone Country: Country Artists Perform The Songs Of The Rolling Stones. But by the time their true follow-up was issued, Farmers In A Changing World (1998), country music had changed course and headed to the shores of pop. The album cover proclaimed "Same 'Great' Sound," and it was, but the music industry had closed its ears to The Tulsa Shuffle. In the case of Arista Nashville, it was in the process of shutting its doors as well.
"I had no intention of making some other kind of music as The Tractors," says Ripley. "We sound like we do every time we play. I wanted a label that had faith in and enthusiasm for that sound--and Audium did." Given his Tractorspeak credo that "the harder you try to do something the less likely you are to do it," its surprising Fast Girl took only eight months to record. "Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this," he adds with a smile. "As it turns out, Fast Girl is closer to my original vision than any of the previous albums."
Filled with the unexpected magic of first takes and the truth of false starts, Fast Girl employs modern technology and Ripley's dogged persistence to recreate the "one mike, one room, no time" atmosphere of the '40s, '50s and early '60s--just like on his favorite records. "The studio is my life. I've been coming here just about every day for 13 years. To a lot of artists, recording is the enemy and they live to tour. We record most of the time but go play sometimes."
What he has tried to do with The Tractors is make records that will last just as long as his favorites. "I'm all for having hits and I think of radio when I write songs but today's hits are disposable, only for these times. I want to approach a timeless quality. I want people to pull out a Tractors album years from now and for it to still sound great. I want The Tractors to be left standing when the dust settles."
Whatever Americana means, Ripley surely knows what it sounds like because he's experienced the life it reflects. "I'm not a cowboy. I'm a farmer. I just keep the wheel in the furrow and keep moving on. You get on the tractor and go round in circles and at some point the field gets plowed."
In Steve Ripley's case, that field bears some mighty powerful roots, which thankfully have yielded yet another new musical crop from The Tractors.
Billboard Review
*The Tractors
Fast Girl
Producer: Steve Ripley
Audium 81182
The release schedule of albums by the Tractors seems to be measured in glacial terms, but the results are rarely disappointing. Fast Girl finds the Tulsa-based country boogiemeisters bouncing to their own metronome, led by head Tractor and chief songwriter Steve Ripley. The act¹s debut on Nashville indie Audium is a sonic delight, with expert musicianship from top to bottom (including an "honorary Tractor" stint by Leon Russell). "Babalou" thumps with an Okie heartbeat, "Can¹t Get Nowhere" swings mightily, and "Ready to Cry" sways with dusty soul. Ripley pays homage to his roots with the back-porch anthem "Higher Ground" and a medley of " A Little Place of Our Own" and Dylan¹s "On the Road Again" that closes the set. Ripley remains an adventurous, risk-taking knob-twister in his own Church Studio, deftly deploying horns, piano, guitars, and backup vocals. Somehow, the Tractors manage to be loose and tight at the same time, plowing along like an old John Deere held together with spit and bailing wire.‹RW
Tears to toe-tappin': Country cranks up
Jim Abbott
SENTINEL POP MUSIC WRITER
Posted May 3, 2001, 2:00 PM EDT * * * * * The Tractors, Fast Girl (Audium):
There's nothing too complex about this fourth album from the loosely organized band of country neo-traditionalists assembled occasionally -- though not often enough -- by Oklahoma native Steve Ripley.
Yet three chords still go a long way in the right hands -- and there are lots of talented fingerprints on these 10 rollicking saloon songs. Leon Russell handles piano and Hammond B-3 organ in a band that includes bluegrass ace Sam Bush on mandolin and portions of Elvis Presley's well-regarded rhythm section (guitarist James Burton and drummer D.J. Fontana).
There are moments when Fast Girl makes you pine for the days when Merle Haggard and Buck Owens had a place on country radio. More often, though, the album is a toe-tapping reminder of the natural link between old-time country and the blues-based boogie that Sam Phillips' Sun Records would transform into rock 'n' roll in the late 1950s.
From Ripley's initial "Heeyyy, Baaaybeeee!" exclamation (a nod to the Big Bopper?), there's an informal atmosphere that results in a one-take, leave-the-tape-running feel.
The opening "Babalou" chugs along behind a solid snare-drum backbeat, a punchy horn section, Burton's dobro and well-placed background voices.. The lyrics span world history from Old Testament stories to Ricky Ricardo and modern politics against a melody borrowed from "The Midnight Special."
That's not the only time that Ripley wears his influences on his sleeve. "Nine Eleven" is a credited sampling of the melody from Huey "Piano" Smith's "Rockin' Pneumonia." The title alludes to a love-related emergency call.
"Can't Go Nowhere" dips into Texas swing with an authenticity that rivals Asleep at the Wheel. It's about a hard-luck guy who can't seem to do what he once did: "You're a fast ball, baby -- Inside curve/ I'd take a swing -- I ain't got the nerve." The jaunty arrangement, which adds a dose of saxophone to the requisite pedal steel guitar, proves that Ripley and his hired guns don't have that problem.
The band slows the tempo for "Ready to Cry," a lean but gorgeously arranged ballad about being on the edge of tears. It's a terrific showcase for Ripley's deep baritone, which manages to sound rugged and vulnerable at the same time on a song that wouldn't sound out of place on an Iguanas album.
Ripley embraces his mission on "It's a Beautiful Thing," which examines the enduring power of Hank Williams and Chuck Berry against the tide of lesser competition.
"There's a lot of new music," he sings. "Stop and think and you'll find. Even Hank was new music once, got to keep an open mind. I set aside my Faron Young and bought myself a Hootie. I rolled down the window of my pick-up truck and it sailed like a Frisbee."
It's worth rolling down the window for Fast Girl too -- so you can feel the wind in your hair when you turn up the volume.
Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel
*The Tractors
Fast Girl
Producer: Steve Ripley
Audium 81182
The release schedule of albums by the Tractors seems to be measured in glacial terms, but the results are rarely disappointing. Fast Girl finds the Tulsa-based country boogiemeisters bouncing to their own metronome, led by head Tractor and chief songwriter Steve Ripley. The act¹s debut on Nashville indie Audium is a sonic delight, with expert musicianship from top to bottom (including an "honorary Tractor" stint by Leon Russell). "Babalou" thumps with an Okie heartbeat, "Can¹t Get Nowhere" swings mightily, and "Ready to Cry" sways with dusty soul. Ripley pays homage to his roots with the back-porch anthem "Higher Ground" and a medley of " A Little Place of Our Own" and Dylan¹s "On the Road Again" that closes the set. Ripley remains an adventurous, risk-taking knob-twister in his own Church Studio, deftly deploying horns, piano, guitars, and backup vocals. Somehow, the Tractors manage to be loose and tight at the same time, plowing along like an old John Deere held together with spit and bailing wire.‹RW
Tears to toe-tappin': Country cranks up
Jim Abbott
SENTINEL POP MUSIC WRITER
Posted May 3, 2001, 2:00 PM EDT * * * * * The Tractors, Fast Girl (Audium):
There's nothing too complex about this fourth album from the loosely organized band of country neo-traditionalists assembled occasionally -- though not often enough -- by Oklahoma native Steve Ripley.
Yet three chords still go a long way in the right hands -- and there are lots of talented fingerprints on these 10 rollicking saloon songs. Leon Russell handles piano and Hammond B-3 organ in a band that includes bluegrass ace Sam Bush on mandolin and portions of Elvis Presley's well-regarded rhythm section (guitarist James Burton and drummer D.J. Fontana).
There are moments when Fast Girl makes you pine for the days when Merle Haggard and Buck Owens had a place on country radio. More often, though, the album is a toe-tapping reminder of the natural link between old-time country and the blues-based boogie that Sam Phillips' Sun Records would transform into rock 'n' roll in the late 1950s.
From Ripley's initial "Heeyyy, Baaaybeeee!" exclamation (a nod to the Big Bopper?), there's an informal atmosphere that results in a one-take, leave-the-tape-running feel.
The opening "Babalou" chugs along behind a solid snare-drum backbeat, a punchy horn section, Burton's dobro and well-placed background voices.. The lyrics span world history from Old Testament stories to Ricky Ricardo and modern politics against a melody borrowed from "The Midnight Special."
That's not the only time that Ripley wears his influences on his sleeve. "Nine Eleven" is a credited sampling of the melody from Huey "Piano" Smith's "Rockin' Pneumonia." The title alludes to a love-related emergency call.
"Can't Go Nowhere" dips into Texas swing with an authenticity that rivals Asleep at the Wheel. It's about a hard-luck guy who can't seem to do what he once did: "You're a fast ball, baby -- Inside curve/ I'd take a swing -- I ain't got the nerve." The jaunty arrangement, which adds a dose of saxophone to the requisite pedal steel guitar, proves that Ripley and his hired guns don't have that problem.
The band slows the tempo for "Ready to Cry," a lean but gorgeously arranged ballad about being on the edge of tears. It's a terrific showcase for Ripley's deep baritone, which manages to sound rugged and vulnerable at the same time on a song that wouldn't sound out of place on an Iguanas album.
Ripley embraces his mission on "It's a Beautiful Thing," which examines the enduring power of Hank Williams and Chuck Berry against the tide of lesser competition.
"There's a lot of new music," he sings. "Stop and think and you'll find. Even Hank was new music once, got to keep an open mind. I set aside my Faron Young and bought myself a Hootie. I rolled down the window of my pick-up truck and it sailed like a Frisbee."
It's worth rolling down the window for Fast Girl too -- so you can feel the wind in your hair when you turn up the volume.
Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel
ALLMUSIC
Stewart Mason
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
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.