Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes w/ special guest Mike Mangione

Description

Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes return to The Bend Theater, accompanied by Mike Mangione as their special guest opening act

Sponsored by Horicon Bank

Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes

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.

Mike Mangione

A lot has changed since Americana, acoustic folk artist Mike Mangione left his hometown of Chicago for L.A in pursuit of a music career.  At the time, the most common musical advice one would hear was to get out and play often.  So, after a year and a half of gigging around L.A, Mangione purchased a van and began a life on the road, sleeping at rest stops and averaging over 150 shows a year.  It was at this time, playing as an unknown soloist, that Mangione discovered three key elements of his music: Sonic subtlety, use of silence as an instrument, and patience.  Fast forward 18 years, two bands, 8 releases and hundreds of thousands of miles later and these three components continue to make up the foundational pillars of Mangione’s music today.  Subtlety, silence, and patience combined with maturation and time has given birth to a woven lush complexity.  But it is not only the beautiful ethereal soundscapes that make Mangione’s music so special.  It is how he desires to use it.     

“Songs utilize a broader palette through the power of imagery, poetry and mystery,” Mike Mangione, Americana and acoustic folk artist, argues, “to create a complete picture that is accessible to each individual from where they are at in their lives.”  Each song is a form of communion between artist and audience.  Mangione writes every song with that target in mind, as each song is a “dwelling place you can enter.”

Doors open at 6:30 PM to give you time to find your seats, visit our historic lobby, concession stand and fully stocked bar!

Show begins at approximately 7:30 PM

Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes

Mike Mangione

Venue Details

The Bend Theater

The Bend