Backing Tractor Trailer

The Way We Live wasn't a terribly commercial or compelling name for a rock band, and Tractor is a yet more awkward and less appealing moniker. Yet, for some reason, that's what the Way We Live changed their name to between the 1971 A Candle for Judith album (which turned out to be the only the Way We Live LP) and their 1972 follow-up, Tractor. Both albums are combined onto one CD on this 1994 reissue by See For Miles. A Candle for Judith was uneven, second-division, early-'70s British hippie rock, divided between lumpy, bluesy hard rock and far folkier, pastoral, acoustic-flavored musings.

Tractor's self-titled album was originally released in 1972 on BBC Radio One DJ John Peel's Dandelion Records label. Previously, this duo - guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer/percussionist Steve Clayton - were known as the Way We Live, and under that name they recorded A Candle for Judith for Dandelion in late 1970 (it was released in January 1971). One of the more remarkable things about this album is the fact that it's completely multi-tracked by Milne and Clayton. In fact, when Peel and his partner/manager, Clive Selwood, signed the Way We Live on the strength of their home-produced demo, Peel is said to have thought they were a group, despite being told that everything on the album had been created by just the two musicians. For Tractor's sessions, the duo spent time in both Dandelion's attic studios (located near where Milne and Clayton lived together, communal-style, in Rochdale, England)…