Tractor Jerry and the Mud Bucket

From the southern end of Pennsylvania, Tractor Jerry grew up with bluegrass festivals and parking lot music circles. Sunset Park sat a stone’s throw from his home in the backwoods of Chester County and featured a humble open air stage that was known for holding the weight of country and bluegrass legends. A tribute to Sunset Park wrote, “Long before country went mainstream, Sunset provided an outlet for hillbilly music at a time when hillbilly was still a term of disparagement. It was a bona fide underground scene, where farmers, factory workers and displaced Southerners could be found whooping it up in the Pennsylvania sticks”. 


A father’s love of bluegrass music and countless childhood afternoons at venues like Sunset, laid the foundation for a lifetime love of Grass and Roots music. In 2015, Tractor Jerry and the Mud Bucket was formed out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Debut self-titled album, aimed to muddle bluegrass and alt-country. Tractor Jerry called upon some longtime fellow musicians to jump in the bucket and search for a sound that Jerry likes to call swamp grass. Premium Motor Oil, marks the follow up release for TJMB. The 14 track album, offers a mix of two-steppers, stripped down strings and alt-country rockers. A country fried version of Michael Jackson’s, “Billy Jean” and an up tempo take on the old standard, “Fox on the Run” round out the playlist. These whiskey soaked country stories have a boot cut and ball cap feel, cutting a path for a new breed of Hillbilly.