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about

Tractor Jean represents our innate ability to accept loss over time. Life just goes on. ‘Old Puss’ remains Jean’s living link to the past.

lyrics

Tractor Jean
© Helen Dorothy (2013)

Jean, Jean, tractor Jean
Drives a Ford 4000, it's an old machine
Whistling tunes when she opens up the shed door
Jean's the kind of woman that likes to drive a tractor!

Jean likes to mow in the late evening sun
Round and round in circles, getting smaller each one,
She switches off the engine, then sits and waits
'Til out pops a partridge with its red-legged mate
She smiles as they fly off over the green
Far from the wheels of the tractor that belongs to Jean

Jean, Jean, tractor Jean
Drives a 4000, it's her mean machine
Waving at the kids, warbling like a jackdaw
Jean feels happy when she drives her tractor

Jean's always likes to work on the land
Give her the nod and she'll give you a hand
She can drive in a fence post, operate a baler
And Jean's the kind of woman who can reverse a trailer!

Jean, when she's having a bad day
Spinning the wheels, stuck in the clay
Or the engine cuts out; she'll be under the hood
To find a nest of blue eggs all broken and cooked
And back in the yard, she still has to clean
All the muck that’s sprayed up on the tractor that belongs to Jean

Jean, Jean, tractor Jean
Drives a 4000, it's her dream machine
In the wind, the rain, the snow and the thaw
Jean's feels lucky when she drives her tractor

The lights are all on in the tractor shed
Jean's day is done, the engine is dead
And up on the hood she'll lay an old jersey
And later 'Old Puss' will make himself cosy
There's paw prints on the hood, so she knows that's he's been
On the jersey on the bonnet of the tractor that belongs to Jean

Jean, Jean, tractor Jean
Drives a Ford 4000, it's an old machine
Takes her oily old clothes off at the back door
'Cos Jean gets mucky when she drives her tractor
Whistlin' tunes when she comes in through the back door
Jean's real happy when she drives her tractor

credits

from Watching Ghosts​.​.​.​and Other Songs, released September 16, 2013
Helen Dorothy - vocals, mandola
Fiona Smythe - violin
Richard Prowse - double bass

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Helen Dorothy New Zealand

Helen Dorothy is “an acoustic folk artist in an honest sense” (NZ Musician, 2009). She writes "beautifully-crafted, intelligent songs rich in memorable imagery" (fRoots Magazine, Jan 2014).

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