Last night at my open stage at the Druid on Jasper Ave in Edmonton, someone asked me why we were playing our first CD release show in Fort Macleod. I mean, Fort Macleod! It’s not E-ville or Cowtown, or even Red Deer or Lethbridge…or Grande Prairie. I had to answer that there were many reasons…but mostly it’s just that Captain Tractor has history there. The town, you could say, is of historical importance to our band.

In the summer of 1994, Captain Tractor jumped into the yet-to-be-named Tundra Bus and headed south for Fort Macleod and the South Country Fair (incidentally the Tundra Bus still resides in Fort Macleod). It was our first out of town gig, our first “road trip”. Certainly, at the time, I had no idea that the road would become such a huge part of my life for the next six years, and that this trip was just the beginning of what was to come. At the Fair that year, we had only t-shirts to sell and we weren’t very good, but we did learn a lot and meet some great people including a band from New Zealand called Banshee Reel who became a very important ally to us in the following years.

In 1995, Banshee Reel toured Canada again, we played quite a few shows together across the country, but when they had to head home early, unexpectedly, and cancel their performance at the South Country Fair their slot was offered to us. This time when we played the Fair we were much better, having toured the country a couple of times since our last performance. We were tighter, more confident onstage and we’d written some more songs. We sold a lot of copies of our first CD, “Land”, that weekend, and went on to play the next 8 years at the Fair, all told 10 years in a row.

We’ve played the Fair a couple of time since then, and it’s always been great, so when we finished the new disc, Fort Macleod just seemed like a good idea. Conveniently, the town is home to an amazing venue, the Empress Theatre, which we’ve been talking about playing for years and years. This 340 seat vaudeville era theatre has been graced by some incredible performers ranging from Blue Rodeo to Sammy Davis Senior (yes ‘Senior’ – 1929)…amazing. It’s quite a history. And we’re excited to become a part of that history on Friday night. I hope you can be there, too. Road trip!!

It was a great time at the Hideout in Red Deer last night, fueled by green beer and Irish whiskey.Thanks to everyone who came out. Don’t forget to post those photos on the CT Facebook page.
We’re just about to sound check at the Ironwood and we’re looking forward to another great show tonight. There are still tickets at the door, but come early. It will sell out!

Scott Peters is navigating us all through the mid-March snowstorm which seems to have appeared. Highway 2 is a sloppy mess…better than an icy one, though. Sound check is in an hour and a bit. Looking forward to “shakin’ the shamrocks” tonight at the Hideout!

Edmonton band, Famous Last Words, circa mid 1960s

Now I’m just saying…

This is not the first time that the title FAMOUS LAST WORDS has been used for an artistic work of some sort. It’s probably been used many, many times. I knew this was the case when I wrote the song and we knew this was the case when we named the album…and, well…we just didn’t care. It just felt so fitting for a band who has not put out a CD in six years (and then a further five years back to the CD previous to that). Is it a good idea? Will it be any good? Does anyone still care?

Here are few other pre-existing endeavours entitled: FAMOUS LAST WORDS:

1) The Edmonton band pictured above.

2) A Tears for Fears song.

3) A big selling single from My Chemical Romance.

4) A 2007 Film directed by Keith Jefferies

5) The title of episode 7 (Season 2) of ABC’s CASTLE.

Not to mention the names of records from Hedley, Al Stewart, and even Supertramp.

So there you have it. Just for the record.

It’s looking like the official CD launch for FAMOUS LAST WORDS will be at the amazing Empress Theatre in our favourite Alberta town, Fort MacLeod! May 6 is the date. Plans to record the show are in the works as well. We will keep everyone posted. We’re hoping to book Edmonton and Calgary CD release shows soon. Keep watching.

If you’d like to keep in the loop, join our mailing list on our Reverbnation page: www.reverbnation.com/captaintractor. Or “like” us on Facebook.

See you all soon.

We have all been listening to the final mixes of the new Captain Tractor record, FAMOUS LAST WORDS, checking all the final mix notes. The record is sounding really great! Incredible that it has been nearly six years since NORTH OF THE YELLOWHEAD came out.

The new record was recorded at THE NORWOOD STUDIO in Edmonton, the studio owned and operated by myself and my partner, James Murdoch. We tracked the beds in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2009. It was engineered by myself and James Murdoch and produced by the two of us and much of the band including our newest member, Shannon Johnson. There was a real party atmosphere during the session where Christmas just kind of followed us out into the studio. Many of our kids were around, having a party of their own, getting in the way…in a good way. We consumed quite a lot of coffee and Baileys as it was extremely cold outside. The whole thing was such good fun. It reminded me of some of our earlier records where we really were having a great time in the studio and there was little or no pressure. There was something about capturing the “play” in the “playing”.

I can’t wait for everyone to hear this recording. It’s our best yet. Mixing was done by John Whynot (Blue Rodeo, Lucinda Williams, Dave Mathews) at his studio in Los Angeles and will be mastered in Toronto by Joao Carvalho on December 8.