CAPTAIN TRACTOR
Monday, August 31
Ironwood
It all started with a bunch of yahoos playing drinking songs for beer, but Edmonton Celtic scoundrels Captain Tractor are anything but hacks.
Well, if they are, then it’s happily self proclaimed, according to Brock Skywalker, the multi-instrumentalist for the group. Skywalker plays 11 instruments including guitar, accordion, organ, banjo, flute, mandolin and the bodhran, an ancient Irish framedrum but in Skywalker’s mind, his skills are still questionable.
"I think the official title is multi-instrumentalist hack," says Skywalker. "I was given that title by the Arrogant Worms and I wear it proudly. I think that ‘hack’ part is important. I play 11 instruments, but I don’t play any of them well. My mom put me in violin lessons when I was five and then piano lessons shortly after that. When I was old enough to say "No," I dropped the violin and started playing guitar instead. I think once you know an instrument with strings and instruments with keys and you can visualize how music works, then it’s just a matter of transferring to different instruments."
Made up of Skywalker, Chris Wynters, Jules Mounteer, Scott Peters, and Jon Nordstrum, Captain Tractor is just now returning to the scene after a few years off. After the release of their first album, Land, in 1994, Captain Tractor spent the next six years touring. Doing 250 shows a year and crossing the country, in a van, 15 times with short forays overseas into Germany, Belgium, Holland and New Zealand, the band created a devoted fan base with their raucous live show and infectious Celtic grooves.
The music and the energy haven’t changed but the everyday logistics have. It may be the day jobs, the kids or maybe it’s just that the appeal of living in a van isn’t what it used to be.
"Our real lives are making it difficult to be the old road warriors we used to be," admits Skywalker. "But now we’re just thrilled to be playing and the audiences haven’t dwindled. We’re thrilled about that too."
Captain Tractor shouldn’t worry about losing fans. Having won nine Alberta Recording Industry Association awards in the decade they have been recording, the band continues to reel audiences in with their high-energy brand of traditional Celtic-inspired music.
"We really started off as a Celtic band," says Skywalker. "That was our idea. People bought us beer if we played drinking songs. So yes it was purely beer motivated. We started off playing a lot of traditional Celtic songs and then over the 10 years, I think we’ve maintained the instrumentation and that sort of energy. There’s this energy in the type of music we play that’s really infectious and really gets people going." |
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