Chicago Farmer

The son of a small town farming community, Cody Diekhoff logged   plenty of highway and stage time under the name Chicago Farmer before   settling in the city in 2003. Profoundly inspired by fellow  midwesterner  John Prine, he’s a working-class folk musician to his  core. His small  town roots, tilled with city streets mentality, are  turning heads North  and South of I-80.

“I love the energy, music, and creativity of  Chicago, but at the  same time, the roots and hard work of my small  town,” he shares.  Growing up in Delavan, Illinois, with a population  less than 2,000,  Diekhoff’s grandparents were farmers, and their values  have always  provided the baseline of his songs.

He writes music  for “the kind of people that come to my shows.  Whether in Chicago or  Delavan, everyone has a story, and everyone puts  in a long day and works  hard the same way,” he says. “My generation may  have been labeled as  slackers, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t  work hard - many people I  know put in 50-60 hours a week and 12 hour  days. That’s what keeps me  playing. I don’t like anyone to be left out;  my music is for everyone in  big and very small towns.”

He listened to punk rock and grunge as  a kid before discovering a  friend’s dad playing Hank Williams, and it  was a revelation. Prine and  Guthrie quickly followed. The name Chicago  Farmer was originally for a  band, but the utilitarian life of driving  alone from bar to bar, city  to city - to make a direct connection to his  audience and listener,  took a deeper hold.

— Honest Tune“You can smell the dirt in the fields, hear the wind as  it  blows across the plains, and see the people that Chicago Farmer  sings  about. Each track captures a moment in time, whether for a person  or a  particular place. Imagine if a John Steinbeck short story had been   written as a song, and this will give you a fairly good idea as to what   Chicago Farmer accomplishes on his albums.”