Chicago Farmer | Bishop Hill, IL

Good music. Good food. Great company. Lifelong memories.

🍉 6pm - potluck/social hour

🎤 7pm - show (approximately 90 minutes)

💵 $20-30 suggested donation (100% goes to the artist)

👨‍👩‍👧 All ages, family-friendly

🍻 BYOB

==================

https://chicagofarmer.com/

https://youtu.be/2xce7Med1Fg?si=KeUt3nBe9bnQUxF5

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.

==================

The potluck is optional, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with fellow guests—and perhaps even share a meal with the artist. It also allows us to welcome visiting musicians with a home-cooked meal instead of another dinner from a gas station. We’ll provide plates, bowls, silverware, napkins, and serving utensils. Bring anything you’d enjoy sharing: an entrée, appetizer, dessert, or drink. If you love it, chances are someone else will too.

These gatherings are what we make of them—you get back what you put into them. The warmth, curiosity, food, and conversation each of us contributes enriches the evening, shapes how visiting artists and guests experience and remember our community, and helps create lifelong memories for everyone involved. Come ready to share, connect, and help create the kind of welcome—and the kind of community—you’d want to experience yourself.

================

Crossroads Cultural Connections is supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris and Ken Kolb Charitable Trust, Big Bluestem Wind, Avangrid, and generous donors like you! To learn more about how you can help visit: https://www.xroadscc.org/support-us.