BAND SPOTLIGHT | Chicago Farmer

After an upbringing among offerings of punk and grunge sounds in his hometown of Delavan, Ill. in southern Tazewell County, Chicago Farmer, aka Cody Diekhoff, saw the light upon hearing the songs of Hank Williams. Soon he discovered Woody Guthrie and John Prine, finding in the simple melodies and complex themes a sense of kinship and belonging, and the direction for his life in music. He spent many moments traveling and playing on both sides of Interstate 80 before becoming an official resident of the Windy City in 2003 and integrating into the burgeoning folk and singer-songwriter scene. With the release of Backenforth, IL, due out Jan. 22, 2013, the self-proclaimed “working class folk musician” is into his sixth collection of original, populist-styled songs. Diekhoff consistently brings his vision of singing to the people, for the people and with the people wherever he performs. Ed Carpenter, singer-songwriter of Bloomington’s Backyard Tire Fire and Springfield’s own Tom Irwin are also on this bill of central Illinois songwriters.