Eaglesmith's zen country, Semple's tight r'n'b, took off on the farm

I never thought I could care about a piece of farm machinery, but Fred Eaglesmith made me care.
Okay, I’m actually empathizing with the characters who care about farm machinery in the songs on his last album Standard — the title is a metaphor. There’s a standard transmission in the old tractor on the album cover, some of the themes feel like standards, and standard transmissions also figure in Eaglesmith’s spiritual leanings to zen Buddhism. He’s the only artist who