My heart was torn when I read that the John Hartford Memorial Festival would be in Springville, Indiana, not Bean Blossom, IN at the Bill Monroe Music Park. I love my little cabin in the woods at the Bill Monroe Music Park (BMMP). It has served us well for many adventures at the John Hartford Memorial Festival (JHMF). And it was reserved and paid for from June 1-5, 2022. ‘My’ cabin has beds, an air conditioner, mini fridge, microwave and sleeps four. We know how to set up to suit our tastes and keep dry. The Main Stage and Hippy Hill Stage are each about a football field away, glimpsed through the branches and easy to hear in the comfort of our secluded shade at #4.

So, compromise; attend the Americana Bean Jam with a day pass, Friday, June 3 to Hartford. We arrived at the music park about 3:00, June 1, and were set-up by 5:30. And then I wandered around the quiet grounds. I was anxious, so few people, no vendors. I missed the pre-show buzz, seeing friends, the Hartford scene in general. High and lonesome was my mood. I felt as if I have to choose between a couple after a bitter divorce. By being at Americana, I felt I was seen as betraying Hartford; way too junior high for my sensibilities. I hoped the magic would happen and all things would work out in both places. I am glad that BMMP worked to pull together music for my weekend at the cabin. No small feat on short order but the chance to play this place speaks to musicians. It’s akin to playing the Grand Ol’ Opry.

As the sun set, we were treated with amazing skies. The roving thunderstorms were ablaze as they drifted southeast. Things will be fine with such a treat to end the day. But I knew I would miss people. The folks at Cabin 3 and their doings: Andy Strauss (Hunker Down) and his family, the Red Mountain Boys, amazing moments in 2019 with the Sweet Lilies, Vince Herman, and Dan Andree playing the Austin Minor Sympathy. Sharing good food, checking out camp sites, the vendors and finding jams. All things come; all things go.

I love the history at BMMP; the deep roots. Bill Monroe bought the existing music park in 1951 and in 1967 founded the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, now the world’s oldest bluegrass festival, with huge crowds, 10-20 thousand people at times. This bluegrass DNA permeates the air, the soil, and I guess, literally, the muck at the bottom of the pond. It’s a place of picking: on porch, in the hot sun, shady groves, around fires, and on stage. The museum on site is great. I love the performers’ costumes on display. Dolly Parton’s dress stands out for sure, cross my heart.

And with it being quieter, the birds and butterflies were plenty active visiting the fire pinks, alum root, milkweed and pussytoes around the cabin. My fiend Patty describes BMMP as biophilic centered; nature is a part of the experience.

Thursday arrived, the opening day of Americana, with a brief morning rain to Dampen Down the Dust (there’s an Americana song title for anyone spending time near dirt or gravel roads). We wandered over to the Hippy Hill Stage to hear Jack Richter and Will Kimble. Both of these fine musicians played on the Tribute to Jon Hartford album and Will has won two JHMF songwriter awards. And Kimble is the second generation of Kimble Mandolin makers. Their music explored the best of Americana: Cannonball Adderly, Jimmy Martin, Vassar, Norman Blake and Tony Rice as well as Will’s originals delivered in voice as unpretentious as Hartford’s. We enjoyed discussing music with them afterwards

Janine Cathchpole: What is Americana?

Jim Richter: A stew of all American musics. It can be folk music, blues music, rock and roll...

Will Kimble: American folk music

JR: American folk music, absolutely.

JC: When I think of Hartford, I think of someone who really, really knew his history of American music at a very deep level. Do you think the younger musicians are really getting that, that are coming up and learning his tunes?

JR: I mean, I think that there are always individuals, that they get into a music because they like the sound of it.  For me, I got into when I was playing bluegrass, I'm really not a bluegrasser, but when I got into bluegrass in the eighties, was in the New Grass Revival in St. Louis.

JC: Oh yeah!

JR: I used them as a way of digging deeper and digging deeper and digging deeper and digging back to Bill Monroe and then the Delmore Brothers and all that. And I think it's the same thing here. I think there are guys like, I'll name drop, not that we know him well, but like Will and I, we knew Billy Strings when Billy Strings was not a thing. And he was just a skater punk kid.  I host a mandolin camp out of Bloomington, Indiana. And he was down there for a couple of years helping out and Don Julin, who he was partners with. Billy knew a bunch of stuff and he was always digging deeper and digging deeper. And his dad was like a big Doc Watson guy and so he knew Doc. And so, when you listen to Billy play the crap that he plays, he knows it at a super deep level. And it's very easy sometimes to look at the young’uns and think, oh, maybe it's superficial or they're jam-grassing or something like that, and they don't have that deep appreciation. I would actually argue that probably a lot of the young musicians at that level, know it. I don't know. Will, your thoughts?

WK: Well, he really knows the Doc Watson. He really does.

JC: Got to love Doc Watson.

JR: He really knows it. I mean, probably better than many, he probably sounds more like Doc more than anybody I've ever heard when he wants to. But it's a good question, and I think there's an interesting story within the story, and that is it's hard to wrap your head around how amazing Hartford is without also understanding how all this other music was a touchstone for him. And you can't you can't get there from Hartford.

WK: Right.

JR: You have to listen to Hartford for to think about what he did. And you have to listen to all the earlier music. I mean, he was a Scruggs fan, that's what he was when he was a kid. He was into all the old times of old-time fiddler, but also tin pan alley.

WK: Right

JC: You hear that in his music.

JR: He did the time. He did the time in the office, writing for the hit machine. He did that, too. So, he's a really deep person. It's really difficult to try to say that you want to emulate him because. I mean, gosh.

JR: His songwriting ability, his archivist sensibility, hearing the stories about his notecards in the back pocket.
WK: Right.

JR: You know, those kinds of things. I mean, it's just, that's a whole ‘nother level of human
being.

On our way to the Main Stage to hear Anne Harris with Ernie Hendrickson,  I looked down at my left foot and saw a four-leaf clover. We set up our chairs. My husband looked on the ground beside him and found another. Then a Hackberry butterfly landed on my arm; good omens all.

Anne’s fiddle playing is hot, soulful and expressive, reflecting her spirit. And good to know of another Chicago area musician to follow. Ernie had played BMMP at a Victor Wooten event about 5 years ago. Awaiting our friend Patty’s arrival, we listened to the Banister Band and the start of the Roe Family Singers out of the Twin Cities from comfort of camp. Once she was settled, we went to listen to them. In front of the stage, the path had gone green compared to the packed dirt or mud and straw of previous years. Soon we were dancing barefoot in the plantain patch. Since plantain is used as a poultice for small cuts and abrasions, our bare feet were being soothed as well as abused. They were certainly grimy!

The Roe Family Singers had a little Western flavor to me. Turns out Quillan Roe played with a Western swing band in Iowa. I liked that they also had a social conscious; the phrase, Stand up, Speak Out emblazoned on Roe’s banjo. Post show we had good discussion about how the Cares Act helped a lot of musicians survive the past two years.  And he has a story teller appreciation of the music they played. Kim Roe also did fine foot-work on the stomp board. After their show, she led a workshop on clogging, jigging, tap or whatever you want to call a stomping good time. Patty felt for the performers; they deserved bigger audiences but at same time loved the intimacy and conversations with folks. 

Janine Catchpole: What's it like to be here and have it quiet for you? I know you've seen the other way it looks.

Quillan Roe: I think that the Covid has hurt them, it is just hammered our industry.

JC: I've heard it's actually having an uptick here in Brown County, too. We're reading been the papers. So, it’s probably good it’s as open as it is.

QR: You know, and we're seeing that all over the place. I’ve actually I talked to them, it’s just who I am, I just talked to a lot of the promoters. Not so much like, how did we do, but just how are you doing?

JC: Yeah, I'm worried about these people.

QR: And a lot of them are saying the same thing to the musicians. That made it worse, that the musicians are saying that. We wouldn't have got through it if wasn't for the Cares Act. I was stunned that we got unemployment. When you're self-employed, you don't expect that. All of a sudden, the news is coming to go ahead and start applying for it. So, we did. And at first it was denied. But within two weeks, all of a sudden, there were these questions saying, are you self-employed? How are you self-employed? It was just like regular. For about two years that kept us afloat, which was a Godsend. I think the businesses that were able to apply for the business grant versions of that did okay. But you know, having said that, doing what we do, we know a lot of restaurant owners and small business owners and a lot of small restaurants went out of business, a lot a record shops and stuff like that. So, to get back to your question. I'm just happy it's here, That something’s going on at all. Hopefully that this is just a Thursday in the middle of the day. And tonight, there'll be people here and Friday and Saturday it'll be packed. And next time, we gotta come here for a later (performance) date, and play for more people.

JC: How did you get into bluegrass and Americana?

QR: I literally remember the first time I heard bluegrass, that summer I was in Chicago on spring break as a Dead fan. And what is this bluegrass business? I'd never heard that. It’s like Jerry Garcia and then Doc and Dawg.

JC: Oh, yeah! All that stuff!

QR: There was so much in the seventies, particularly, there was so much cross-pollination with those guys. I mean, you have these long hair guys playing bluegrass.

JC: And it’s right back into Hartford. And they're back to the whole point of why we're all here at some point.

QR: He played with everybody. I mean, before he was ‘John Hartford’, he was backing up everyone. It's amazing how many people, like straights he played with. It's pretty cool. There's all that and that's kind of what's neat about that the seventies era of bluegrass, because you had these long-haired New York hippies playing with Bill Monroe and these hard traditionalists and making incredible music. So, again, back to the beginning of that question. I don't think of it in terms of genre, of course you have to have genre, but that's what people need, but this genre is huge! If you could call it folk or Americana, you've got so much to grab from. And also, the other thing is, ultimately, I want people to dance.

JC: Thank you! Thank you, from a person that, if I hadn’t grown up in a town of 300, I really would have pursued dance hard, but my mom didn't even drive.

QR: It just makes people feel good. The two biggest compliments for live music are people dance with you or they sing along. The applause is awesome. Of course, it's awesome. But the big stuff is if they, - because they're expected to clap, that's like a social contract - But if you get people to dance, if you can get people to sing along, you've made a connection. And that's magic. That's my favorite.

JC: Thank you. From the audience. Yes. Having grown up in Montana my dad was in a country Western band, so I had a lot of knowledge of that (music). But I do hear that Western influence in your music with that Western swing. You said you were in a band. What was the band?

QR: I played in a band. My first professional band was Western Swing/Rockabilly, so I did that. I guess the professional run of the band was probably about six years. And then we broke up, but we kept playing shows every now and then. It's the music that I grew up with. My mom's family Is from southern Iowa by way of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. That music that was always playing at home. My dad had really eclectic tastes. The stuff we listened to the most was Doc Watson and a group out of North Carolina called the Red Clay Ramblers, which is some of my favorites. And the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. The thing that's important about all three of those bands in particular in what we do today, is that none of those people were traditionalists. I mean, you think of Watson as a traditionalist, but in fact, his whole style of playing was totally innovative at the time and he brought in all sorts of stuff. And the Red Clay Ramblers were all over the place and Tim Kweskin Jug Band, you know, it was a jug band, but they covered Chuck Berry.

JC: That had to have been great!

QR: It was fantastic. Kim was actually listening to it yesterday in the van. We actually got to play with Jim twice down in Louisville, Kentucky, which was absolutely amazing. All this music is what you said your friend with, the Grateful Dead magazine, right? People there are definitely people that come to bluegrass festivals. You play that Grateful Dead song, we're like, no, we play that Bill Monroe song. But the point there is that the Dead had the same thing, they were grabbing from all over the place. We’re the same way.

JC: So how do you select songs you play and how do you debut songs?

QR: It’s learning how to learn it. Learning how to how to edit.

JC: Analyze?

QR: Yeah, absolutely. We played a bar every Monday night. There's no better audience to let you know what's working and what's not working because you're competing with all that noise and all that booze, you know? And as we all know, your passions increase when you're high or stoned or drunk and people will let you know they love it or they'll let you know they hate it or the worst, they'll be indifferent.

JC: Indifference sucks.

QR: If it's really good, but you've got to pay attention. So, we do these songs, and we debut new songs all the time. Some of them are our own stuff and some other people's. Usually we give a new song 3 to 4 weeks and just see how people are reacting to it. We were doing Neil Diamond's Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon. We did that for three weeks in a row and every time we did it, no applause. We’d get done and people were like, no applause. So, the fourth week I said, all right, I noticed the last three weeks no one is applauding this song. We're gonna do it one more time and we'll see what happens. And we got done and it was just, (blows raspberry) you know. It was out of the set list and I haven't played in four years.

JC: Did you learn to clog?

QR: No, I learned to swing dance. Yes, I learned to swing two-step, because we had a band in town that played every Wednesday night. And before they would play, they’d do free lessons. And then that's how I learned. And then it was never as many men as women. So, you always had somebody to dance with. And the women were just happy to dance. And I guess I looked eager enough because I had a lot of people teach me and I was like, yes!  I want to be good at this. The funny thing is, Kim, when Kim and I met, she's a good dancer, obviously. But after we got married, she went back to school and she had to take a gym credit. And so, she took swing dance or ballroom dance. And so now, still today, whenever we dance, she tries to back-lead all the time, like one of us has to decide who's leading this, you know? Well, I don't care, but it can't be both of us.

JC: Sometimes, with Floyd and I, my husband, it's a conversation.

QR: (Laughter) Over who’s leading?

JC: Sometimes.

Breaking for food, eating rhubarb pie first because it’s festival, we listened to next few bands from camp as we worked our way backwards through our meal. Things were as laid back as they possibly could be. Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band entertained and got the folks dancing and having a great time. Shupe did a spot-on Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection leading into a proper country-boy rocking banjo tune.

The last act of the night was Nick Dittmeier and the Sawdusters. This three-piece band reminded me of the Bottle Rockets and the alt-country/roots rock leading back to the Bakersfield sound, Americana for sure. I’m glad to see they can be found in playing in Illinois. The drummer was a machine and a show himself.

Friday, we enjoyed the Jack Whittle Duo on the Hippy Hill Stage. Whittle played a great set of front porch blues for a sunny day, sipping cold drinks. Doc added blues harmonica as they through Whittle’s originals and song covers like Tulsa Time, and Hey, Hey, Good Lookin’. We discussed Americana and the emphasis it puts on song writing.

JW: Janine, nice to meet you.

JC: I mean, you talked a little bit about what is Americana when you were on stage. And this is an Americana music festival. What does that mean to you, Americana?

JW: Oh, genres, I think, are kind of silly anyway. I really do think they're kind of silly. They're the marketing tool.

JC: Well, sure, they have to put it into a category.

JW: You have to describe something to someone. It's a hard to describe music. So, Americana to me, is a combination of a lot of rootsy musics, rootsy American obviously. But the music tends to be more country and folk, from what I heard. But there's definitely a blues element.

JC: Well, that was part of the scene. Country blues is a thing.

JW: All right, cool. I love it!

JC: You can't hear Hank Williams without hearing it. I grew up in Montana. Dad played country music. Hank Williams was huge out there, but he was still singing blues.

JW: I agree. When I play a (mimics a shuffle beat), it's a shuffle. It's a little different in Chicago, but still the same.

JC: it's a shuffle. Yeah. So that's the fun part anyway. Yeah. Roots music, I think. I agree. Anything else you want to say about it?

JW: Americana, I like it and I'm glad it's getting, it just seems over the last ten years it's getting a lot of recognition.

JC: I think it's like proper back or front porch music. I mean, it is the root music of the people. Anybody can get guitars or a banjo and play it; it doesn’t have to be a huge production.

JW: There is a lot a lot of focus on songwriting which is also awesome because I write.

JC: I admired your songs.

JW: I appreciate it. Some of the other roots genres that I do love are sometimes stuck doing the same repertoire, over and over, which is good. It's educational.

JC: Okay, but what particular branches are you would you put in that category?

JW: Genre wise?

JC: Yes, with roots music?

JW: Blues tends to be a lot of people doing a lot of covers and which is great, but sometimes not as much focus on original music. Okay. And sometimes, you're in Nashville on a trip and see country acts, it’s just country acts. If you see some country band playing there, it's often is a cover band. There's nothing wrong with. I guess we could find it entertaining. But it's cool the Americana scene kind of focuses more on songwriting in my experience.

Then it was time to get over to Springville and JHMF. We knew we wanted to find friends, vendors and hear Chicago Famer and The Sweet Lilies. Living on festival time, an hour drive and wending our way from front gate to parking area, a distance long enough to impress any Montana rancher, we found Chicago Farmer as he finished his set. I finally got to see Luna in person and her devoted humans. We had time to scope out the vendor area. Patty had shopping to do and we said howdy to the folks with the Gypsy Wagon. They missed their shady spot at BMMP. We worked our way up the see the Hartford Stage and some of Wolfpen Branch.

Winding our way to find The Sweet Lilies and the Boogie Stage, we found the Griffin camp and got a wonderful Amy hug. Any time with Jon, Amy, their family and friends means festival. Then we spied Vinyl Phil. He was hot, but in the uncomfortable way, not too hot for Laura from Aurora but we missed her. Then Mr. High Ho Gems, Mr. Steam Powered Preservation Society, Jeff Mankin himself shows! We all traveled 275 miles to see each other when we live 30-160 miles apart. Festival makes us silly.
We hiked down (then up) Hummel Hill to the Boogie Stage. This hill dwarfed any hill at BMMP. Some classes of vehicles cannot use that road, especially if the underlying clay is wet. Tracking down the stage we found seats and settled in. I was told the band was exploring some new sounds since the 2019 Hartford. Members of Chain Station joined The Sweet Lilies. Covers of Can’t Touch This, and The Vampin the Middle showed a lot of range. And the players were having a blast as well as the dancers in the high-heat time of the day; lots of energy. But personally, we missed the amazing melodic harmonies of 2019. Given heat, dust and an hour back to Beanblossom, we left after this set.

Back in time to hear some of the Jon Stickley Duo from the cabin as we ate spaghetti squash topped with chili, shredded cabbage, cheese and ripe avocado slices. After being properly refreshed we headed over to hear Della Mae, an all-woman bluegrass band. The bass player is up for a CMA award. They were so glad they could squeeze Americana Bean into their schedule for chance to play on that stage in that place. And we got the harmony fix we were craving and missed at Hartford.

Since we had to leave on Saturday, we only got to catch a couple of acts on that day. John Ford opened the day with blues including Muddy Water’s Train to Chicago; Charlie Patton’s Pony Blues and originals. Solid one-man show at the Hippy Hill Stage. (Video 4) This site was so named when in the 1970s all the long-hair folks excited by bluegrass began to attend the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival and they needed to put these people somewhere, so a new camping area and stage was created.
On the Main Stage, Cruz Contreras has credentials and stories. At 15 he was invited by Hartford to a picking party with the likes of Earl Scruggs, Marty Stuart and others. At one point, sulking alone over some damage to his new guitar borrowed by someone, Bill Monroe walked in and told him the name of a song, the key and to keep up as best he could. Cruz, his banjo picker, Matt and fiddler Billy put out a lot of pleasing sound.

My husband and I danced in the pavilion. Good dance music deserves a level dance floor. I wish we could have stayed. The Kody Norris Show is a hot bluegrass act and I guess his costumes are part of the show with new ones to be revealed on the Bill Monroe stage. Veronica Lewis promised hot boogie-woogie and blues. Hogslop Sting Band would have been a bluegrass party throw down. Drat! So many bands I haven’t heard!

We finished the last bit of packing and stopped in at the Music Park store for some ice and to let them know we plan on reserving the cabin for next year, 2023. It’s about location, location, location and a cabin. We didn’t find the Lawrence County Recreational Park as inviting or comfortable as the Bill Monroe Music Park. We’ll see if Americana Bean Jamboree Festival will grow as we watched the JHMF grow over the years. I’m glad traces of Hartford can be found at Bean. I think Hartford will find its feet again. It was a bit like a stirred-up ant colony or a flock of golf carts trying to leave all at once from one stage to the next. A couple of years under their belt at Springville will make things smoother, easier. People will know where their villages are and the lay of the land. Or they may find another better venue. I know deeply how much fun the people and performers at Hartford are and missed seeing them. I am glad I can find many of them at other events.

One of the true festival-going experiences is seeing how things evolve over the years. Sometimes, like in any relationship, one moves on to bigger challenges, new places and that’s okay. Others stay behind with enough music mycelium running deep to bring new things to picking size. I have faith in both festivals to live long and prosper without feeling a need to take sides. Let there be songs to fill the air.

Both my husband and I have volunteered at the Frankfort Bluegrass Festival (FBF) for a few years. We’ve helped with early morning set-up and merchandise sales. Volunteer work done, we’re free for music and dancing if the chance arises. But, this year hubby (Floyd) would be backpacking in Pennsylvania. Now was the perfect chance to volunteer with hospitality.

Hospitality is a tight-knit group with the FBF organizing committee members, Steve Harberichter, Brooke Kryrgsheld Grosnek, Amanda Thompson, and Jen Wonnell, in and out to grab a bite and coordinate work in all areas of event production. The committee raises funds and finds sponsors, donors, volunteers, and musicians. They’re busy much of the year prepping for the event.

And what an event! FBF attracts 8-10 thousand people and won the International Bluegrass Music Association Best Event of the Year in 2019, being nominated twice before. The committee relies on an army of volunteers to make the event run smoothly and committee members are not above volunteering family members as need presses. In essence, they work for months to build from scratch a two-day temporary village. They coordinate security, first aid, traffic, and fire safety concerns with the Village of Frankfort. They arrange food, sanitation needs, seating, tents, stages, vendors of all kinds, children’s activities as well as selecting musicians, promotion, and lots more. At a recent after-action review with the village, the committee received thumbs-up for another well-run event.

Brooke, like any committee member, does anything and everything necessary but has a passion for the children’s activity area. Growing up, her parents organized and produced the Illiana Bluegrass Festival in South Cook and Kankakee Counties of Illinois. Growing up at bluegrass festivals, she wants kids to have the same happy memories from FBF. Brooke selects kids’ activities to bring a lot of new experiences and learning opportunities to broaden minds, create joy and even get instruments into their hands. This year featured Mr.Bubbles, blacksmithing, circus school, and face painting to mention a few.

All the committee members have or will have (shout out to Steve Harberichter and Nikki Giblin) kids whose lives are entwined around FBF, with it being as much a traditional part of summer as the 4th of July. Now, after 10 years of festival and 12 years of time (the Covid effect), many of these kids are earning community service hours to fulfill high school requirements. This service teaches them about giving back to an event they simply enjoyed when little. A four-hour shift builds sweat equity in an event bigger than themselves and family but at the same time, still family.

Growing up in a small Montana town, one glance at me and people would know to which family I belonged. The same occurs with the FBF volunteer families. If they play it smart. these kids can partake of a built-in network of people that can lead to job references and work, learning opportunities, friendships, and open doors to the bigger bluegrass network. Personally, at 15 years of age, I would have loved to trade four hours of work to get the run of a music festival, casually looked after by that network of parents, extended family, and friends. Their spies would be everywhere encouraging good behavior. I see this generational approach in musicians, too. Old pros bring in younger players, building their skills, teaching traditions, and stage presence. Young players share tricks and new influences with old pickers. Bluegrass is familial music, literally in some bands with multiple generations performing or a chosen family of people that play, sing and dance together.

Working hospitality provided many opportunities to talk to musicians. Rick Farris and his band were getting to practice together since all the band members were finally in one place (Farris from Kansas, band members, Tennessee, this being the second time this group of musicians played together.) Final arrangements and set lists were being worked out. It was fun to listen to and watch. Faris has played every FBF with Special Consensus or his band since inception. He was raised in a bluegrass family. Faris and his three brothers plus his mom and dad made up the award-winning Faris Family Bluegrass Band.  This year’s band members for the FBF include Luke Munday, banjo, wearing a 1922 silver dollar lucky charm; Harry Clark, mandolin; and Beth Lawrence, upright bass. 

Lawrence was touched by the home-based hospitality of FBF and quite glad to be in Frankfort, bringing her closer to home in Kenosha Wisconsin. After the festival she plans to head home to see her grandfather, soon to be 100 years old, and grandmother, 94. She started playing upright bass at age fifteen as part of the Lawrence Family. Lawrence studied music at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha for a couple of years before transferring to East Tennessee State University. While Lawrence was studying classical music, she also played bass in the university’s top-rated bluegrass band. The classical music department looked down their noses at bluegrass, so she left the music program at East Tennessee before completing her degree. But the bluegrass department considers her an alumna because of her time playing with the band. Lawrence said she is close to completing a degree in Psychology with a Biology Minor. Smart and talented, I like Beth and we plan on staying in touch.

Matthew Williams, banjo, Butterfield Creek Band, was blown away by Lawrence’s bass tone as we listened to Faris on the Prairie Park FBF stage. He called it impeccable. While Faris is a FBF veteran, Butterfield Creek represents a local band getting a first-time opportunity to fill in when another group had to drop out; they had a one-day notice to be the opening act on the Prairie Park Stage. Steve Ploem, a musician herder, said the band is out of the Homewood, Illinois, and South Chicago Suburbs and is in a new iteration with two new players, Kelly Compos and Anastasia Robieson leading vocals. Ploem plays guitar and mandolin and writes; Larry Kaufman plays fiddle with Robieson adding her fiddle chops, too.  The band focuses on Americana, bluegrass and traditional songs. But Ploem said they aren’t shy of giving a song a bluegrass treatment if it needs it. Butterfield Creek just opened for Dom Flemmons, a founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Wexler Group Trail Mix Acoustic Concert Series at the Izaak Walton Preserve in Homewood, Illinois. He was busy handing out fliers to promote a series that builds support for the local music scene. 

I asked the aforementioned Williams what it is like to listen to others players. He said it’s hard not to analyze everything another banjo player does from hand position on the neck to picking style technique. Turns out Williams recently moved to Joliet, my stomping grounds. So now I am promoting our local music scene and musicians and where to find them (Chicago Street Pub and Elder Brewing Company). We are talking about all kinds of things but it ends up revolving around family backgrounds and legacies, good and bad. I ask Williams if I can tell him a story of my 9th-greatgrandfather, a rollicking true tale of wooden ships, shipwreck, mutiny, safe returns and rescues, a famous author, and American colonial history.

As I come to the part connecting Stefano, a minor character in The Tempest by William Shakespeare to my 9th great, Stephen Hopkins, another voice from neighboring table chimes in. Hopkins is his ancestor, too. So that’s how I met Michael Prewitt, mandolin player for Special Consensus, a new, very distant cousin. Then comes the following weird link in this family/generation-themed discussion.  William also had an ancestor on the same ship, the Sea Venture. This ship was the flagship of the third resupply convoy to the Jamestown Colony and was wrecked on one of the Bermuda Islands. After building two small ships, survivors make it to Jamestown in 1610 saving Williams’ other ancestors suffering through the starving times of 1609-1610.

So, three strangers meet in the hospitality tent at FBF to discover that two share an ancestor and the third has ancestors at the same places, Bermuda and Jamestown and time 1609-1610. A strange Karmic node and a new personal best in festival strangeness and magical connections. I guess ancestors like bluegrass.

I’m thankful April Jackson has opened her yard and house for hospitality at FBF to make such amazing moments happen. She is the “hostess with the mostest” for FBF. The committee hires Jim Jackson, Smoking’ Jim’s Catering, (no relation to April) to do the bulk of cooking with the hospitality volunteers aiding in prepping other foods. Jim Jackson said he prepared 80 pounds of pulled pork and 250 personal pizzas. Bushels of peppers, onions, zucchini, and corn, and lots of salad fixings were chopped by the hospitality volunteers. Trail’s Edge Brewing Company of Frankfort donated 10 trays of chicken wings. It takes a lot of provender to feed volunteers and musicians. 

The FBF committee members agree all the work, starting almost immediately post-festival, is worth it. Jen Wonnell said she loves to see the smiles and everyone having a great time. But she always panics about getting enough volunteers to cover everything at the FBF.

Committee member Amanda Thompson said she’s thankful for volunteer support, especially glad her mom, April, opens her home. Amanda also appreciates that her children and other littles connected to the committee are safely looked after there. But as Amelia, Amanda’s daughter put it as clean-up finished on Monday, “No more social interaction!” It was a long busy fun weekend that wore us all out.

So, the Frankfort Bluegrass Festival is done and gone for a month now but the media is still discussing its success as happy memories linger. Don't forget, good people, to support your local community events early and often by looking for volunteer opportunities. Do as the Frankfort Bluegrass Festival has and build your community to be better and create friendships that go beyond your normal circle. Who knows who you’ll meet?

Check out more Frankfort Bluegrass Festival photos from Patrick Marsh Swamp!

When I saw the location for Rumble Down, I smiled. I wanted more of my family (kids and grandkids) to experience a small jam-grass festival. Four of the grandkids are multi-year Shoe Fest veterans but more of them need the experience and my tribe is all in the Springfield vicinity. The festival site, The Kampground, is within bicycling distance for one of my sons. This would be a bunch of first-time adventures for the family.

 It is so grand to have a beautiful local place for a festival. Recently, The Kampground, a new enterprise near Mechanicsburg, Illinois, has opened up to host music festivals and other events. Formerly a Nazarene church camp, the site is about 15 miles east of Springfield, Illinois. They offer a quiet and peaceful family campground on 25 acres, featuring RV/Camper and tent campsites, cabins, a fishing pond, hiking trails, a basketball/volleyball court, and fun. Music festivals are a new direction for the campground. It was a good day when the Rumble Down management team approached The Kampground as the festival site. 

The inaugural Rumble Down Festival was held on July 29 & 30, 2022. And since this is its first go-around, it means whoever attends can help set the tone, vibe, and culture of the event for years. Good beginnings matter. So, given close to home, family-focused, and a nice mix of bands, I cast out the word of my willingness to buy tickets to family and waited to see who took the bait. The initial response was meh. Two of the older grandkids, Shoe Fest vets, knew about the event. It wasn’t until the day of the show that I finally got an idea of who would attend. It was a good thing I bought some early full event tickets a Saturday pass and won two full event tickets courtesy of WRZD 88.3, the wizard home of free-form radio Chicago.

There would be a lot of work at a new event. I spoke to Anj Way, event coordinator, marketer, and band-management guru, on August 3 about Rumble Down. Way said she has been working with The Rumpke Mountain Boys, out of the Cincinnati area for the past couple of years. Jerry Thompson, aka Bear, is a Springfield, Illinois native and knew about The Kampground. The last part of the production team is Rick Shay, their Chicago investor. Along with the Rumpke Boys, they brought in Armchair Boogie, and Sicard Hollow, among others, two bands Way feels are taking off. Of course, Bear knew he had to bring in the local flavor of Central Illinois so Sunshine Daydream, out of Springfield, was brought in to play Dead, towing along a group of friends I knew back before 2005 and a move to Joliet. Sunshine Daydream has a legacy going back to another Springfield Dead cover band called Perfunctory This Band. Sunshine had Brad, a Perfunctory member, as one of their early founders. Stretching out a bit farther north to Bloomington/Normal, Illinois means touching base with Chicago Farmer and the Field Notes. So new musicians for me to hear, old familiars to sing along with and new people to meet.

My thought was the first-time festival means it will be small, not so overwhelming for people new to this scene, and safer for the little ones. And the event worked hard to make sure kids were entertained with activities, lots of painting, crafting, bubbles, and silliness. Way said she was proud of the kids’ team, Rick, Violet, and Haley, and their efforts. I have observed that keeping a family focus is what makes small festivals a success. It means families can enjoy the music and scene together. And I think it is easier for people on a sobriety journey to enjoy the day when it isn’t focused on partying, at least through the daylight hours. My friend Joe proudly wore his Wharf Rat shirt. Keep on it, Joe!

We arrived Friday afternoon just as Pete Jive finished opening the event on the main stage. Pete told me, “It was the first time I was not in jeans and boots onstage. I wanted to feel good, to feel that breeze.” Pete, in shorts! And, the weather was amazing, a break from the heat and humidity that usually marks a Central Illinois summer.

I have to admit the next few bands, good as they are, were background sounds as I welcome two grandkids, Danika and Mikah. We caught up with each other and with the Jon Griffin clan. Then we explored vendors. A first-time vendor was Gregory Sergi, from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A friend talked him into vending. He had spent several years living and studying at a Buddhist temple in Guatemala where he grew coffee. And he had the most amazing coffee. It was a shade-grown, honey processed, which means beans aren’t rinsed after the berry around the bean is removed. Then the bean is slow dried.  He had beans and a tank of cold brewed coffee and Guatemalan goods to sell. Sergi is raising money to build a new Buddhist temple in Fond du Lac, “trying to change the crazy in the world”.

Danika scored big at Little Kin, a vendor from Mt. Vernon, Illinois. The soon-to-be freshman scored an upcycled corduroy jacket and skirt which she totally rocked on Saturday. Little Kin shared vendor space with a partner, Tucky Reynolds, a fine artist specializing in glass mosaics with his studio at The Pharmacy, an artist collective in Springfield, Illinois. We also met another first-time vendor, Egress Records and Comics from Metropolis, Illinois. And they came from north and south to all be a part of Rumble Down.

Now I could settle down in time for Burle and Friends, and that was magical, a tonic for my soul. Benny “Burle” Galloway is a songwriter/performer whose influences mirror my favorite musicians, Hartford, Watson, and so on. I had short sleep the night before and as he sang Night on the River, I wanted him to sing me to sleep. It was soothing. But no time for sleep. Off to find food from vendors. And the food was a nice mix of local vendors as well as traveling outfits. Getting local connections impressed my son on Saturday. Then, back to hear Sicard Hollow. They definitely were a crowd pleaser, and I enjoyed them but was too tired to process more than that. We sent the two grandkids off home and packed ourselves up to drive into Springfield and a real bed.

Saturday morning, we arrived before opening band and got ourselves settled. I bought a Nitro-infused cold coffee from Sergi. He said it had the strength of three regular coffees and he added a special creamer made with ghee, almond, and coconut oils. Flavor, umami, but no sweetness to speak of, this caffeine would get my festival started. As did Chickadee Sermon, a female-led bluegrass band, clear and sweet as summer rain. As I sat sipping coffee with Amy Griffin, we laughed and talked about many things. Reminder, Amy, to write your children’s book, Picnic with a Goat. And I’ll write mine, Are you a Flower?

Booted, a band led by Dan Huber, was up next on the main stage. I heard a lot of Neil Young in the vocals and enjoyed the music but was interrupted by the arrival of Danika, in her new ensemble from yesterday, and her two friends. One quickly bought herself corduroy patch festival pants. It is good to know they will never go out of style. The Mighty Pines were fun, good semi-psycho bluegrass blues, and mandolin lead with a fine bass player. Friends showed up in time for Sunshine Daydream. We set up their tie-dyed banner and it became a way to mark our place. Sunshine Daydream got my husband and me up dancing, granddaughter reported we were a crowd favorite. But I also had opportunities to go up and dance alone, working on my spinning. One must always be spin-ready to dance to many Grateful Dead songs or with my husband, Floyd.

I admit I was a bit nervous about my son and his wife, Aaron and Shannon, and their family being exposed to the alternative culture that rolls on at a festival, but I knew he and his wife had seen a thing or two in their lives. They worry so about the kids. We met them at the gate to get tickets bought and to haul gear suitable for a family group: blankets, chairs, cooler. They had four of the kids, the oldest would show up after work; only one granddaughter missing. After getting set up under our tree, and the grounds had many well-placed trees with welcome shade, folks started disappearing to check out vendors, find food or play at the children’s activities.
The space set up for kids’ activities was within easy viewing from all the vendors and seating at the main stage. The youngest grandson, Oakley, three and a half years old, loved the bubbles. He was so enamored with his wand that he backed himself into a tub of bubble solution a few inches deep. Aaron, was there as fast as an in-shape marathon bicycler can run to fish Oakley out, dripping bubble solution. As he got him back to our area, a vendor was there with a towel for him. Shannon took him off to the showers after buying a tie-dye shirt and checking the car for extra clothes. Oakley spent the rest of the festival commando in his shark-boy jammies with a t-shirt over. It was a perfect festival look.

And that is exactly what I like about small festivals. Everybody keeps an eye out for the kids, well mostly. I did see a golf cart being driven through a group of littles, in bad form! Cart routes should be designated and marked beforehand to the service stage, sound, or merch tent. There are things both the festival producers and site owners need to work on for next time. But in general, the people at this festival were marked by how well they seemed to listen to others, even to kids and there was a concern for each other. The conversations were great as this new tribe made connections with each other. 

Visiting with Patrick Griffin, son of the talented Jon Griffin, I learned how he valued growing up attending festivals as a family. He was told at each festival to go and make friends with the other kids. Now, as a young adult, he has a network of people he is connected to across the Midwest, friends everywhere, and potential ports in a storm if traveling. And he has learned a thing or two about people. He said he was about 10/11 when he told Jon he had seen someone drinking a clear liquid from a glass quart jar and was curious. His dad told Patrick it was probably moonshine and to watch this guy and see what happens over the day. Patrick said, “Later that day I saw this guy face-planted along a path, still clinging to his jar.” Jon told him this was a lesson in what moon-shine does to people; way to teach, Jon!

And teach Jon did, he offered a painting experience for kids, hosting two sessions, one with fifteen kids and a later session for my family of seven painters. Garret, age ten, has met Jon before and had a lot to discuss about his painting and the one Jon was working on. Garret eventually sold his painting to a nice woman, charmed by Garret’s story about what the painting represented. He put a lot of thought into it. It was the first festival sale for G! I hope he will be excited to come back to this event next year.

We did manage to catch some of Jaik Willis and Chicago Farmer and their solo performances, which are always great. The second stage was much smaller but an easy walk from the main stage area and close to the cabins. The cabins were quite tricked out! I spoke to Steve Luparell, owner of The Kampground. He said it sat empty and unused for fifteen years.  He bought the place at auction in 2017 and is now on his second five-year plan to make it all work. He has been going through the cabins, updating and decorating the rooms. Many of the cabins, sleeping 4-6, are much like glorified hotel rooms, air-conditioned and each decorated with a theme such as automotive, music, sports, etc., by his partner, Janeen.  Some of the rooms include sinks and baths and can be connected to another cabin to create a suite, perfect for families at festivals or for family reunions. All rooms include a refrigerator and microwave.

Luparell is looking to attract weddings, reunions, more festivals, and whatever he can to make the grounds pay. He has 30 rooms, about 40 RV hook-ups, and camping spaces in the woods. Some of the RV sites are used by seasonal workers on various construction projects in the area. A large gathering place has been recently refurbished as a wedding/reception event space with a kitchen area to service catering companies. As for festivals, he thinks the site would max out at about a thousand people. Between the shady performance area, charming cabins, and setting, it is a great spot for small festivals. Because the site was used for years as a summer camp for a local Nazarene church, Luparell says he has people coming by for a walk down memory lane. He hopes the memories lead to bookings. [email protected]  He also said the management group for the event was good to work with and after three festivals on site, Folkin’ Boogie Festival in 2021, Let It Grow, and Rumble Down, he is reassessing things to better prepare for such events. Luparell didn’t get to listen to a lot of music, he was that busy but did make time for a bit of fun Saturday evening.

Saturday evening meant settling in to hear good music. Songs from the Tin Shed was a homage to Jeff Austin and the 2004 album Songs from the Tin Shed, with Chris Castino of Big Wu and Wugrass. Nick Forster of Hot Rize and Noam Pickelney, Leftover Salmon, also played on the album. The set deserved more attention and the list of massed musicians playing this set more kudos. I will track down the album; I miss Jeff Austin. It was a wonderful set and we found ourselves off to dance a few times. 

Chicago Farmer and the Field Notes were up next on the main stage. I wanted my son to hear those guys, we love them. But as it was getting dark and little ones were wearing out after playing with bubbles, rolling down hills, and constant motion. It seems they were ready to pack it up. We got them to the gate and shortly afterward met Mikah who was there to pick up his sister. Once I was sure all the family and friends were safe and sound, we hung out for a while longer playing in the music Farmer and the Field Notes were playing. They definitely had the crowd dancing and singing. But it had been a day and we headed out without seeing the Rumpke Mountain Boys and any of the late-night scenes. 

I hope Rumble Down decides to do this again at The Kampground. It will make a special family event over the years, The grandkids had fun and my son and his wife found it relaxing. Nothing to do but listen to music, watch kids play, chill out and smile, smile, smile. Floyd even managed a nap at one point, sleeping with the gnomes the granddaughter and her friends bought. Maybe next year I can concentrate more on the music as I know the family knows the ways and means of hanging out at Rumble Down.

Check out more PHOTOS from the weekend!

On the eastern edge of the grand prairie lies Camp-Shaw-Waw-Nas-See, near the Kankakee River State Park, 60 miles south of Chicago. It is the host site for Shoe Fest, a location almost as storied in beauty as Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Ohio.  Labor Day weekend 2022 meant the 10-year anniversary of Shoe Fest at Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See. It is a family-friendly festival in the finest of natural surroundings and its success depends on the work of all the players, including Rock Creek. What follows are notes from an interview with Matt Robinson, festival producer and guitars/vocals for Old Shoe, and some background on Camp Shaw, Rock Creek, and how the three have joined to create a oneness bigger than each part, Shoe Fest; three is a magic number. 

For me, the connection to Shoe Fest runs deepest with Camp Shaw and the ecology of Rock Creek.  Shoe Fest 2012 at Camp Shaw (the second Shoe Fest) was how my husband and I discovered the ecological wonders of Camp Shaw & Rock Creek. We tracked down Camp Shaw Executive Director Greg LaPlante to learn more and became deeply involved with camp on many levels. When asked how Shoe Fest came to be at Camp Shaw, Robinson said when they learned the original location would not be available again, he took to actively reaching out on social media to find another site. After checking out and rejecting half-a-dozen places, he had a message from long-time Old Shoe fan, John Taube, saying he knew the perfect place. He met Taube and followed him out to Camp Shaw. After meeting LaPlante, they went on a tour of the site. Robinson said the first time he walked the bridge across Rock Creek, he got goosebumps.

Taube, of the famous long mutton-chop sideburns, attended 4-H camp at Camp Shaw as a child and knew the place well. Taube passed a few years ago and is much honored at Shoe Fest and Camp Shaw. In his memory, there is a bench near the stairs down to Rock Creek. Please think about Taube and what his site suggestion has meant for Shoe Fest and 10 years of happiness. 

Robinson is proud Shoe Fest has no overlapping sets, no large corporate sponsors, and that Camp Shaw is a big part of the experience.  He also feels there is a greater understanding of what Shoe Fest is about for Camp Shaw and the community. The goal, he said, is to build on the family side of the festival life, acting in a way to make Shoe Fest sustainable in the long run. Old Shoe wants an event that will grow old gracefully. 

After 10 years we have all been through some changes including a no Shoe Fest year in 2020. Shoe Fest has lore, a mythos created by the experiences and stories told by every person who attended Shoe Fest. It has a history woven into Camp Shaw and its presence is felt in Rock Creek. Shoe Fest has stories to tell. “And one time, at Shoe Fest….” For me, these memories of all the effort it takes to put on a festival are what make Shoe Fest, Rock Creek, and Camp Shaw so special. As you pass that bench, you descend into a bowl that is the site of an old rock quarry used by the first white settlers of Kankakee County, in particular the stone house and the barn on site. There are a few other smaller quarries on Camp Shaw’s land.

Camp Shaw has been a youth camp for 75 years, reaching generations of happy campers. By September, summer camp is over and the majority of the paid staff has left. Camp Shaw reaches out to its dedicated volunteers and board members to work for about a week to prepare camp for Shoe Fest. Sometimes trails need to be cleared to get equipment and vehicles into the east side of camp, cabins cleaned, and parking lined out. Old Shoe honors the spirit of Camp Shaw by keeping things family orientated. I asked Robinson if I was seeing more kids this year or if after ten years all the kids were simply bigger and taking up more space. He excitedly reported there were more families.  With more young kids joining the pack, the festival organizers add more activities for younger festival goers. And he reported some of the Shoe Fest families now have children attending summer camp at Camp Shaw.

Robinson felt it was a mark of success when one of his best friends said Shoe Fest must be cool because his thirteen-year-old daughter wanted to go with her parents! I second this with my own experience with my grandchildren who have helped at the Illinois Native Plant Society booth, a non-profit vendor at Shoe Fest. I organize the booth for our local Kankakee Torrent Chapter of the Society, another lens through which I view Shoe Fest. Our Illinois Native Plant Society booth is there to answer any questions people might have about what they see at Camp Shaw. We have done events at Camp Shaw that included BioBlitz to record every plant and animal we could find in one weekend. Having great conversations with people interested in land restoration oftentimes quickly switches over to music as well. Mark Messer of the River Valley Rangers, that have played Shoe Fests of the past, has worked for my husband Floyd joining in the efforts to restore the ecological diversity of the land.

This brings me to another key component of the Shoe Fest experience, the vendors. We all hold down the forts on Shakedown and as such have gotten to know each other pretty well. We exchange foods, goods, and services with each other. Phil Strods creates art from old vinyl records. He sells the art for memorabilia but long ago, he also approached Robinson about painting signs for the festival. His early sign work was so beautiful that many went walk-about, so Strods keeps things simpler now. What would Shoe Fest be without the reveal of the new color scheme for the signs each year? Many traditions have developed with the signs being a part of the culture (ex. the big group photos). Other vendors include Giant Buttons and Joyful Bubbles who always amaze and archive all the rainbow of colors reflected in the Shoe Fest attendees. Jon Griffin is a huge arts supporter adding his artwork to the official Shoe Fest posters. Sunday at Shoe Fest included Jon Griffin’s art workshops for kids that were unfortunately disrupted by some rain but Griffin was able to set up in the pavilion and keep the art alive! Our friends at Flannel Candle Company not only make the best-smelling all-natural personal products as well as candles, but Jessica swings a mean chainsaw on Camp Shaw work days. These people return to Camp Shaw to clear invasive woody plant species. It truly is a community.

Of course, the biggest draw for kids and adults on a hot day is Rock Creek. We wade and play in the creek, stacking 350–400-million-year-old rocks that formed when this area was covered by a shallow ocean. The dolomite rock contains fossils that turn up occasionally in the creek bed. Camp Shaw would prefer fossils be left to be “discovered” by other people. Rock Creek is the fourth largest tributary to the Kankakee River, draining 121 square miles of Will and Kankakee Counties. 
For this reason, the Illinois Native Plant Society and Camp Shaw have collected names of people in 2016 and 2021 that would support the creation of a plan to protect Rock Creek. Development upstream means more hard surfaces that will put more water into the creek via storm sewers. This is untreated water and whatever washes off roads, parking lots, and such goes directly into the stream. It also means the speed of the water and depth of the creek can swing dangerously high. Flood waters have almost reached the deck of the bridge at times, pushing boulders downstream, and sounding like thunder. A plan to protect the creek from chemical run-off and pollution is the first step in getting assistance from the state to keep water safe enough to support aquatic life, including everyone in the creek. If you live in the drainage area or have friends that do, please reach out to me. We need your help before the next round of funding for work in the Kankakee River area. The waters of Rock Creek are the lifeblood of Camp.

Matt Robinson and the current Camp Shaw board president Steve Hill with his wife Lily stood on the bridge over Rock Creek.  They paused to look around at the culture of Shoe Fest, of people coming together beautifully. Robinson and Hill both had tears and goosebumps. Old Shoe wants to maintain this special relationship with Camp Shaw and Rock Creek, to be good neighbors to each other. It’s a great place to practice being human, he said.  A place with little dissonance, a place to live the dream, escape the pressures of the world, and build up a good vibe that stays with you until the next year, a festival afterglow. And who would Robinson love to see play at Shoe Fest in the future? Gillian Welch would be his dream act.

Camp Shaw hosts other events like company picnics, boy scout groups, school outdoor education students, church groups, and even full immersion baptisms in Rock Creek! Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See would like the relationship with Shoe Fest to bring people back to Camp for the rest of the year too. With so much to mention about Shoe Fest 2022, did I forget to mention a wedding took place in Rock Creek this year? Another journey begins anew in the waters of Rock Creek. It's almost traditional. Camp Shaw had a wedding on the books for the first Shoe Fest in 2011. Details were worked out and many remember how Shoe Fest had a quiet time while the wedding went on. It seems every Shoe Fest the buzz goes around about a wedding being held. I think people sense the spiritual uniqueness of this place.

The special sense of place began soon after post-glacial floods down-cut the Kankakee River about 19,000 years ago. The down-cutting of the river left a smaller stream, Rock Creek, perched above the river, forming a waterfall 40 to 50 feet high near the mouth of the creek. Over the past 19,000 years, the Rock Creek falls has been steadily migrating upstream to its present location and is now smaller and less steep. The rate of migration is about 4 inches a year. In 30 years, the falls may be 10 feet upstream and much less of a waterfall. Nothing ever ends up where it began. After the glacial floods ended, the canyon soon offered a haven to native people. During Shoe Fest, many people hike to the rock monument of Chief Shaw-Waw-Nas-See of the Potawatomi Nation, to pay respect, and to leave offerings. He asked to live out the rest of his life on this site after the Black Hawk War.  The canyon protected the east side from harm by wild or intentionally set prairie fires and the prevailing southwest winds that drove them. It also sheltered the people from winter storms. His wish was granted by giving him the site as a reserve until his death. He was one of the last of many different native peoples that have spent time at this place for over 12,000 years. 

Imagine the power of people celebrating this special place for thousands of years. Now think of about 2000 people for 10 years celebrating “One last dance before summer turns to fall”, sending happy vibes into the earth and rocks, the air, the water, along with a few smokey offerings. Old Shoe, you did well to choose this site for Shoe Fest, keep building and nurturing this three-in-one miracle. See you all again next year!

Check out more PHOTOS from the weekend

Like many touring musicians, Edward David Anderson (EDA) has logged a lot of seat time in vans and RVs beginning in the mid-1990s. His band, Backyard Tire Fire, toured a bit with Gov’t Mule, Reverend Horton Heat and others, crisscrossing Canada and the United States. EDA has been featured on NPR’s World Café and appeared on the radio program, Mountain Stage. Backyard Tire Fire went on hiatus for about 8 years from 2011 through 2019.  During that time, he did some solo work or work with his other bands, Black Dirt Revival and Alabama Getaway. To quote Jim Hayes from the County Standard Times, “He has a knack for infectious hooks, yet these are well-crafted songs; melodic and upbeat…They seem very real, as if they come from the life of a troubadour. Anderson continues to impress.”

EDA and I discussed the changes that come in making music once a band makes it to a certain degree. Changes happen after some radio play and album reviews. In many ways, EDA said, after a level of success music loses some of its innocence. It becomes a job, hustling to get the gigs, get reviews and quotes in bigger media venues (Rolling Stone Magazine and the New York Times still matter). And the social media game has a strong role, too. Once the curtain is pulled back from the process of making a record, it reveals the business side of making music.

He pointed out how many bands, especially those on the jam band scene, depend on both social media and an intensely loyal fan base that will not only follow those bands but will introduce their children to them by bringing them to festivals. That kind of generational loyalty creates a level of success that can be ridden for a long time.

In Illinois, from one end of the state to the other, EDA is regarded not only as a great musician but a person worthy to know, a genuinely good man. As he and his family have settled in Havana, Illinois, he has reworked his musical journey to give his family and himself more stability and peace. I first heard his solo act at the Hop String Festival in Joliet in 2012. After many years of hearing him and getting better acquainted, I asked to EDA to do an interview.

We started by discussing early influences.I have thought about my first musical influences in life. Mom listened to whatever was adult contemporary radio as well as country/western out in Montana during the late 1950s when I was very young. And my dad played guitar so I have that, too. Or, to quote Paul Simon from Late in the Evening:

“The first thing I remember
I was lying in my bed
I couldn't have been no more
Then one or two
I remember there's a radio
Comin' from the room next door
And my mother laughed
The way some ladies do
When it's late in the evening
And the music's seeping through”

GW: When did you first become aware of music and which kind of music struck a nerve?

EDA: I remember records being played in our basement in Lombard, IL in the mid-70s, 8 tracks, too. And there was always music on the radio in the car or truck. Early stuff I remember is Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Beatles, John Denver, Neil Young, Chuck Berry, Jim Croce, Stones and really anything that was on popular radio at the time. The first music I ever bought was Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits cassette picked up at a gas station. I loved Chuck's guitar and the cadence of his vocals, it was magic. Still is.

GW: When did you first begin to play and what instrument?

EDA: I picked up guitar at age 16. My pop showed me basic major and minor chords. I couldn't put it down.

GW: If you were aware of music at an early age, does hearing that music create any thoughts or feelings now?

EDA: For sure. One record I have vivid memories of is called "Free to be You and Me." Mid-70s kids records made by Marlo Thomas with lots of guests like Mel Brooks and Rosy Grier and such. My sisters and I listened to that album countless times, memorized all the bits. It brings back good memories when my mom was around and really in her element. She loved being a mother and later in life told me that was all she ever wanted was to be a mom. So, when we listened to that record with our 3-year-old daughter now, it brings me back to Lombard, IL in the mid-70s

GW: Did your tastes change as you got older, junior high and high school?

EDA: For sure. In junior high, everybody was listening to Van Halen and stuff like that.  I was into what was happening. But I had older sisters that were listening to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stones, Doors, Dead, etc. I recall hearing all that stuff through the wall in St. Charles, IL. At some point in high school, I found the Grateful Dead and started gravitating towards improvisation and the Allman Bros and such. I was down the Phish rabbit hole in grad school when I started listening to Uncle Tupelo. They really resonated with me because I loved old country music as much as I dug rock-n-roll. and their songs are incredible. It felt very accessible and natural, probably because I was raised on songs and songwriters. After my wife and I got married, we moved to a small town in the hills about 20 miles north of Asheville, NC. It was there that I started digging into roots music, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, etc. I had already delved deeply into blues, but hadn't heard a ton of flat picking and fiddling and banjo at that point, slide guitar too. I picked up on that stuff while living down there for sure. It continues to evolve. I’m sorta all over the place. I love listening to Miles Davis as much as I do John Prine.

GW: What bands were you seeing in Bloomington/Normal when you were at Illinois State University? And how soon were you playing?

EDA: Hmmmm, well I wasn't seeing a ton of bands as I hit the ground running down there in 1995. I had a band called Brother Jed that developed a following pretty quick. Made a record. Even got on the radio down there right off the bat. So, I didn't see a ton of stuff because I was gigging myself. I remember being in awe of the Spelunkers though, incredible musicians and songs, power pop rock-n-roll trio to the max with insanely cool arrangements. And they had their shit together, a record deal, a van. I remember riding up with them in the van one time when they played the Metro in Chicago. Definitely had an influence on me. Their drummer John Ganser is now who I play with in Black Dirt Revival and Backyard Tire Fire, an absolute monster drummer and stellar human.

GW: I see we have a commonality in education. You have a Masters in Interpersonal Communication; I have a BA in Communication. Do you feel your education influenced your song writing? Did it give you more tools to express your thoughts? Reviews praise your way with words and storytelling. Is any of it biographical? I am thinking of Hiding at the Hollow.  I shared this song with my son; as a Marine, he invaded Iraq in 2003 and has PTSD. He likes his time up in deer stands and living a rural life.

EDA: I'm sure my education didn't hurt my writing ability as that's what I was best at, but honestly, it probably didn't have too much an influence. I think just being in that environment at that time, from a social perspective, did indeed have a big impact on how my life turned out. Live music was still the thing that young people craved and sought out. There were lots of places to set up and play; bars, house parties, garages, etc. So that's what I did. People still bought your music. There was no internet. We chalked the quad and got articles written about us in the student newspaper. It snowballed. Shortly after finishing grad school, the band was given a record deal and a van. It was a different time. but that scene certainly had an effect on how things went for me. (There is) lots of autobiographical stuff in my songs. even if I invent the characters, you can't really help but let stuff seep in. Hollow is most definitely a true story. Wife and I had a little cabin on Happy Hollow Lake and we'd escape out there when we could. I remember it was at the time our mothers were in decline, so we were stressed and that place was where we would go to get away. I'd write songs and we'd float around. Eventually we would sell it for the down payment on the RV that we took on the road together for about 5 years.

GW: I remember a day, years ago, in a campus library, looking through a book on the evolution of language and the importance of bird song. It blew my mind that, while two different centers of the brain process language and music, music is the deeper evolutionary influence. I think early humans were responding to little wrens with as much joy and inspiration as you did with your song, Little Wren. How do you perceive music?

EDA: I think how I perceive it has changed over the years. There was a giddiness and an innocence in the early years. Ha! it's a strange way to make a living. I’m not complaining, but I’ll be honest about it. You're basically campaigning non-stop 365 days a year, trying to build this thing. Trying to get people to listen to your songs, to take you seriously. So, music at some point became a means to an end. A way to make a living and pay the bills. (It) doesn't mean it's not sacred to me, because it really is, but it certainly changes your perception.

GW: Do your early songs hold up for you or do they reflect the where and when of that time and who you were then?

EDA: A few hold up. To be honest I rarely go back. I can tell you that I’ve grown into the songwriter I am. Some get it young; you know? Jackson Browne wrote These Days when he was 16. I needed some decades of living and learning to get to where I am and that's cool. Everybody's musical journey is unique.

GW: I recently read Todd Snider's remembrance of Loretta Lynn. He recalled spending time with her at her home. She had a refrigerator loaded with notes, each with a few words or phrases that could be for a song. Do you keep a stash of ideas, phrases and such you come back to for song writing?

EDA: I've got stuff laying all over the place, lines jotted down. Tons of videos of song ideas that I don't wanna lose, lots of old demos. But to be honest, I don't go back very often. If I’m writing, it's usually because I’m inspired to do so. So, I don't go back sifting through stuff very often.

GW: Do lyrics or melody come first in your songwriting or does it blend?

EDA: It varies. Seems like most times I’ll have a progression on some instrument and melody starts to happen after. And eventually the vibe will strike a chord and words fall from the sky, that's my general model.

GW: After Loretta Lynn passed, I spent a bit of time listening to Willie's Roadhouse on Sirius XM. The song, Country Sunshine, by Dottie West was played. The DJ commented that when Coca-Cola bought the rights to the song for a commercial, it was what put her daughter through college.
If you had a similar chance to do this with a song for your daughter, would you?

EDA: Yep. I used to think that was selling out. No longer.

GW: From your website I see Backyard Tire Fire was formed in Asheville, North Carolina, then you went quickly to Georgia. Was it hard to make that move early in the band's development?

EDA: I think everything was hard at that point. Asheville wasn't really a rock-n-roll town so we thought Athens was only a few hours south and most definitely had a rich history. We were pretty broke at the time. Bass player didn't make the move but would drive down for gigs. It didn't last. But we were able to get on a bill at the Georgia Theater and hired a friend to record it. That was our first album, Live at the Georgia Theater. We used it to get gigs and it worked! Six months after moving down there, I was working more in a bar than playing, and having way too much fun. So, we played New Year’s Eve 2002 and drove back to Illinois the next day. My brother joined us at that point and it was onward and upward.

GW: Could you list the years of Backyard Tire Fire up to the hiatus by listing just a few words to describe each year?

EDA: 2001- five dudes get together in a basement in West Asheville, NC
2002- some of the band moves to Athens, GA and records Live at the Georgia Theater
2003- again, some of the band moves back to IL where my bro joins and we record & release our self-titled studio debut
2004- my brother quits his job to play full time and we gigged TONS
2005- band puts out Bar Room Semantics and lands management, continues to gig constantly
2006- band puts out Skin & Bones EP, lands agent and really hits the road
2007- Vagabonds & Hooligans is released to much critical praise, played Skynyrd Cruise, toured US & Canada with Clutch
2008- band puts out The Places We Lived and continues constant touring, lots of good press, play with Los Lobos and befriend Steve Berlin
2009- Scott Tipping jumps on board as the touring guitar player, band goes Portland, OR to record Good to Be with Steve Berlin producing
2010- band releases Good to Be and tours the US
2011- band breaks up, or as we said...went on an indefinite hiatus

GW: So how does a black-dirt-educated boy pass through Georgia red clay and end up sitting on sand in west central Illinois?

EDA: Honestly, I was ready to head back to IL from NC as I knew there were gigs and support. But we decided to make a go of it in Athens. I loved it down there. Had too much fun, and regret none of it. Just happy we left with an album in hand. How did I end up in Havana, IL? Well, when we decided to try to have a child, we had this idea of raising it in a rural setting. We love the outdoors and wanted to feel some breathing room. So, after looking all over the state, we found this place and adore it.

GW: Havana has been a town I have wandered through since I moved to Illinois. It was a place to get out of the corn & beans of central Illinois. And I like being by the river. I have grandkids in school  in Havana and am acquainted with all the issues of small struggling rural communities. I grew up in a small town, too, and know there's always undertows.  Yet Havana ain't dead yet. Ben Wright of the Henhouse Prowlers called it the most authentic small town he has ever seen and he has traveled a wee bit. We have noticed the uptick in good music there, and improved store fronts which we believe connected to you and  friends pushing the established structure in fresh directions. Tell me about Havana

EDA: It's a quaint little Illinois River town that's about an hour from everywhere. We wanted to move rural and found an incredible piece of land with an old farmhouse built in 1887. We have woods and trails and prairie. I have a studio that sits 200 feet to east of the house.  Our daughter loves it. The downtown is in the midst of a revitalization that is really starting to take shape. There's a beautiful park on the river, red brick streets, stunning architecture and lots of charm. We dig it.

GW: Do your other enterprises, such as a talent buyer for places in Bloomington/Normal, Illinois and festival organizer, as well as a recording studio, allow you to find more balance than just playing gig to gig?  I understand how much work it takes to make things happen.  Or does it become a labor of love for the cause of good local/regional music?

EDA: For sure. I'm playing less as we take on other endeavors by design. I want to be home. I wasn't enjoying the travel, especially after our child was born. So we're figuring out how to make it all work as we go. And things have sorta fallen into place. My wife is a force and has really taken to talent buying and working in the music biz in general. That said, it's always been a labor of love. Making a living in the arts is challenging, to say the least. I'm lucky to have done it for the last two and half decades.

GW: How important is supporting the local art/music scene to small communities and what are your observations?

EDA: It's very important to us as we'd like our child to grow up in an enriching environment. One that values arts and culture in the community. And it also attracts people to this town, which helps everybody. The more folks visit and and enjoy what this place has to offer, the more it'll grow economically, which benefits both business owners and locals. According to information from the Havana Chamber of Commerce and their surveys of people visiting the town, live music is listed high as the reason they came. There were good local bands like Pork and the Havana Ducks that played regionally for years. So there’s a musical history here for sure

GW: I see that the band members and fans are still out there keeping Jerry ”Pork” Armstrong’s blues legacy alive; he passed away in 2003. He was a big part of the Central Illinois music scene and involved with WHIP radio when it was a local independent station. What are some of your memorable moments with the music events in Havana? Mine was when the riverboat disembarked passengers at the park right before the Henhouse Prowlers played this past summer; an unique Illinois River-town event.

EDA: “We were really pleased with the inaugural Havana Songwriters Festival last May and can't wait to do it again this year. We've brought acts like Henhouse Prowlers, Miles Nielsen, Chicago Farmer, Backyard Tire Fire, Steepwater Band, Taylor Steele & more to this little town already and have lots in store.

GW: This question is  by way of my grandson, a Havana high school student and in a Nirvana/Pearl Jam cover band but interested in song-writing. Would you consider a songwriter workshop for teens/young adults that don't have access to bars? 

EDA: I've been kicking around the idea of a songwriters workshop weekend thing out here on our homestead for a good while. Probably just a handful of folks, maybe 4 or 5 aspiring writers wanting to work on the process. Still in the brainstorming phase. And then my wife and I are hoping to help fill a need with some arts programming and if we secure a space, I'd certainly consider a songwriter workshop!

GW: With all the bands and projects, what one would you like to expound on?

EDA: I’m pretty pleased with how things are these days. I've got several projects that all get about the same amount of attention. Very pleased to have this new line up of Backyard Tire Fire rocking at the moment. We play about 20 shows a year. Love playing with Black Dirt Revival and Alabama Getaway too. It might be nice to rehearse every now and again, but other than that, I'm pretty happy at the moment.

GW: From your social media posts, I see your daughter likes being in the studio with you and enjoys music. Do you think she may follow you into music?

EDA: I put an open-tuned guitar in the house. She would walk by and strum or pluck notes and then she started vocalizing in tune to the strings she plucked.

GW: Will you do an album of choice songs for children with your daughter helping out?

EDA: I'm guessing that'll happen, at some point that'll happen. We jam together whenever she's feeling it. It's incredible watching her grow and explore musical instruments and music in general. She heard the Miles Davis record Kind of Blue minutes after she was brought into this world. As a baby she was raised on Aretha Frankin's Lady Soul. She's heard Tom Petty's Wildflowers more than most adults I know. Same with Prine's Missing Years. That said, if she doesn't play a note, I'd be fine with it. I mean I want her to find joy in music and am cool with however she goes about doing it.

Assorted musings:

GW: I know the Drive-by Truckers also have roots in Georgia. Did you know them?

EDA: We never played together but I was acquainted  with former member, Jason Isbell, a talented man.

GW: And if the Drive-by Truckers and Backyard Tire Fire played, together would it be a Drive-by Backyard Truck Tire Fire?

EDA: Ha!

GW:  Please comment on the relationship: Jerry Garcia is to JGB as EDA is to Alabama Getaway.

EDA: JGB just seemed like a good time for Jerry, a release, less pressure. Just playing music with friends and not a ton of expectation. I mean it was serious in that the band could really play off one another and the musicianship was outstanding, but it was loose, you know? It was also a chance for him to dig into songs he adored that the Dead didn't play. Lots of soul music. Melvin's organ was such a huge part of that band. And then it seems strange to compare, but I guess there are some similarities. Alabama Getaway is a real good time for me. Period. There was a rehearsal once about 3 years ago. If new material comes in, we learn it on our own and try bits at soundcheck. I’ve been playing music with the bass player, Joe Kennedy, since the Brother Jed days in the mid-1990s. Other than that, it's a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants outfit. Another similarity is that I get to play stuff I love that I don't play in my other projects. Even bringing in some stuff outside of the Dead catalogue. Like we pulled out Dixie Chicken and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed the last time we played. Both are favs.

Upcoming events:

December 16, Friday, The Main Room -  EDA Solo @ 7:00pm, Havana, IL

DESTIHL Brewery TourBus Concert Series – January 14, Saturday, Edward David Anderson @ 7:30pm, Normal, IL

February 11, Saturday, 1st & 3rd - 6:30pm, Petersburg, IL, United States

February 18, Saturday, Fitzgerald's - Backyard Tire Fire @ 8:30pm, Berwyn, IL

Chicago Farmer has, for twenty years, sung songs of the Midwest, songs celebrating his small-town heritage of hard-working people, making it through life’s good and hard times and proudly wearing their dirty uniforms, whether they live in the country or in a city. Cody Diekhoff (Chicago Farmer) observes the joys, the trials, and the everyday bits and turns things into lyrics telling a story, some fictional, some with truth, set to catchy melodies and phrases that inspire people to dance and sing along.

Whether he is performing a solo show in a small town, or with his band, the Fieldnotes, at a large festival, Chicago Farmer gets around the country bringing relatable music to anyone that’s put a long day in and is ready to let off a bit of steam. Plaid shirts and baseball caps seem to be the typical uniform of the crowds at sold-out venues.

I was privileged to meet Cody at Third City Sound in Joliet, Illinois to record this interview about the upcoming spring tour. (Thanks to David Francis for being the recording engineer.) 

GW: I'm Janine Catchpole sitting down with Cody Diekhoff, Chicago Farmer himself.

Farmer: Yes. Good afternoon.

GW: Thanks for coming and giving me the chance to talk to you. I think the first time I saw you was downstairs at the Chicago Street Pub here in Joliet, IL. I’ve been keeping track of you ever since. So, this is a real treat! Where are you headed tonight? 

Farmer: I'm coming from Bloomington to Chicago. I'm at a studio tonight in Humboldt Park where I'm going to be tracking some vocals for a couple of songs that I just recently recorded with my band, Chicago Farmer & the Fieldnotes. It's kind of like this room, actually. It's just very homey and it's got a vibe. I've recorded in some real fancy places before, and you don't need fancy, you just need a vibe and some good folks to be in a room with to make the magic happen. 

GW:  So, are you going to be working on a new album eventually with the Fieldnotes?

Farmer: We have a new full-length album that I've almost written that I'm really excited about. But in the meantime, we have a couple of original songs and a cover that we've been playing live, and I don't really know where they fit, so we're just going to record them and have them as singles for a little extra spice on the 20-year anniversary of Chicago Farmer

GW: This is pretty exciting!

Farmer: We recorded an EP we released last year called Fore! I think we're gonna record four other songs and we're going to call it 4x4, and then we're going to put it on vinyl. So, one four-song EP will be on one side and the other four-song EP will be on the other side, the B side.

GW: It sounds efficient.

Farmer: Yeah, we're taking things as they come after the pandemic. I don't want to go in and record a full album right away. We need to just let's take a little time but now a little time has passed. We're ready to get back at the recording process.

GW: Probably early this morning, more like 3:30, I woke up and started to think about doing this interview with you today. For some reason, the Nat King Cole song Nature Boy popped into my head. In the song, the boy teaches: The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. Does this very wise wandering describe the past 20 years of your journey and your songs?

Farmer: I suppose. I wish it was all that simple. That's why I got into music. It was a simpler thing to do than what everybody else was doing. But I didn't want a simple life. I wanted a life that was traveling and getting into the muck of it all and seeing as much music and art and as much of this country as I could, which got me on my travels. I learned that over the last 20 years. It's not that simple. There's a lot to it. There's a lot more to it than just playing an acoustic guitar in the woods, you know?

GW: 20 years of back and forth in Illinois and beyond, 20 years of being those guys that everybody loves. 20 years of songs with vibrato and bravado going through or occasionally, not going through winter storms. I remember you being stuck on the interstate missing a show downstairs at the Pub

Farmer: Yeah, there's only been a couple of times in 20 years of my career where I haven't made it to a gig. And one of them was here at Chicago Street Pub. This 18-wheeler wrecked right on I-55 and there was nowhere to go. And I mean, I had the ditch on the side was an option, but I had my Mercury Grand Marque and I just didn't feel comfortable about going for it, so I just stayed there. It was. Brutal. 

GW: Well, we were glad you're okay. That was an intense night. So, anyway, with all of this, are you happy with the results of this work and all the people and the places?

Farmer: I am. I look back on it and people say there's just no way you can do things differently. There's no way you can know what is going to happen. I just went all in and I've been doing it ever since. And I feel like if you're going all in, you can't really have regrets or look back and say, I should have done this differently. 

GW: It was the path that was your path.

Farmer: Yeah, it was definitely my path. Maybe there are little things I could have gone in this direction with my music at this time, or I could have gone in this direction, figuratively and actually going in different directions. There were times when I thought about, let's go to Nashville. Let's do these things. There are tons of opportunities down there. And I know a lot of people who had small amounts of success here and went to Nashville from Chicago and had great success. So, it could happen. But I just feel at home here in central Illinois and Illinois.

GW: That matters. And I watched the video you created back in 2011 and it documents where you were about halfway into the journey to now. By the way, the years have been kind, a little grayer, but they've been kind to you!

Farmer: That was all pandemic. I had no gray hairs before the pandemic. It got me good!

GW: In that video, there is a lot in your songs about touring, the road, and the rhythm of travel, you said that as a teenager and a young man, there were hours of driving country roads, hours listening either to the road or to a Simon and Garfunkel tape. Is that when you started composing on the fly, so to speak?

Farmer: Definitely, I heard a story that John Prine used to write songs from Maywood to his gigs in Chicago in his head while he was driving to those gigs. I could never pull that off. Like, that's a short, short drive. But there's been times when I've driven from Denver to my hometown of Delavan, Illinois, where I wrote a song or two in my head. It took me about 15 hours longer than it takes Prine, but I came up with something. 

GW: Well done!

Farmer: That's always been like an escape for me. When I was in high school in a town of 1700 people, that's what we did. We drove around, we got in our car and we would drive.

GW: Did you guys take baseball bats to mailboxes?

Farmer: Yes, we possibly did.

GW: I had a friend who tried to hit mailboxes with the car door, but it left a lot more evidence.

Farmer: Yeah, this is karma right here. I did smash mailboxes when I was in high school. It's just…

GW: It's a ritual of small-town life.

Farmer: I still have, I think, the record in Tazewell County for community service hours from smashing mailboxes. And then about two years ago, my wife and I moved into a new house, which was kind of our dream house. And we lived there for two weeks and a drunk guy ran over our mailbox and I looked at my wife and I said, I'm so sorry. This is karma. This is karma for me. 25 years ago, smashing someone's mailbox.

GW: So, you got that one out and checked off now.

Farmer: Yeah, but no, there wasn't much to do in my small town so driving was a big thing and I always really enjoyed it. And during the pandemic, I would just get in my car and I would just drive the country roads just to get away. And whenever I get back on those little roads outside of my hometown, always it's very easy to reminisce and get a lot of ideas.

GW: Yes, I was going to ask if the Zen of the road helped you compose.

Farmer: Absolutely. In the majority of my jobs before music or even during the early years of music, I delivered pizzas, I delivered flowers, I delivered phone books. I was always in a van or a vehicle driving somewhere to deliver something. And I came up with a lot of ideas behind the wheel.

GW: You don't have somebody else chatting in your ear. There's beauty in the solitude and getting into your head, getting in touch with that inner creative

Farmer: Yeah, definitely.

GW: Do other road and concert events get into your songs? Other particular incidents that come to mind?

Farmer: Oh, these songs come from anywhere. One of the newest songs I have right now is called Mattress, since 2019, every time I would travel somewhere, I started seeing mattresses everywhere. My neighbors were in a rental house next door and every five or six months people would get kicked out of the house and they would leave a lot of stuff in their front yard. And so, I would have my coffee and my guitar every morning and I would stare at their mattresses. Then I would drive around town and there would be mattresses in other people's yards or on top of their minivan, you know, they got their arm hanging out. I pay attention to things like that because you never know when the inspiration is coming. At the same time I was like, do I really want to have a song about a mattress in my repertoire? And then our guitar player, Jake, was late to practice one day and I asked, what happened? Why are you so late? And he said, I-57, was backed up for miles because there are these mattresses all over the middle of the interstate. Okay, I got to write a song about that.

GW: I think now that's karma.

Farmer: Yeah. So now I have a song, a song about mattresses by the side of the road.

GW: I'll look forward to hearing that. So, Delavan, Illinois, your hometown, obviously gave you some good roots in central Illinois. Out of the 1700 people you mentioned, there are 41 businesses listed, including that restaurant that was still on there. I have to say, growing up in a Montana town of 300, I envy your hometown and I do appreciate the nostalgia and sense of place you bring to us through your songs and stories about it. Does Delavan and your experiences there inform your songs now as much as compared to, say, 15 years ago?

Farmer: Definitely. I feel like when I started writing songs in high school study hall, everything was pure creativity. I didn't have really any experience. I hadn't been anywhere yet. So, it was all imagination. I would just make everything up. Now, all these years later, I go back to my hometown and I reminisce a lot and I think about things, and I really start putting it together in a more truthful way with my experiences that have happened. And I still go to that small town well for inspiration constantly.

GW: Do you ever go down and sit on the corner still?

 Farmer: Yeah, I do. I was just there not too long ago. My Grandpa's going to be 101 in March and my Grandma's 94 and they still live in the same house that my Grandpa grew up in. It's pretty wild. We go to the little town and visit the bar where my dad started taking me when I was six years old to play pool and hang out and stuff. My friends from high school have owned it for the last 15 years and they just sold it to a new family. I had to go down there to celebrate their last night at the Farmhouse Bar and Grill. Just seeing old faces and bumming around the town a little bit. It brings everything back. The songs and the ideas come quickly.

GW:  I saw there was a John Deere factory and of course we know there’s the central Illinois corn, beans, and other miscellaneous agricultural endeavors, places where your family worked. Tell me a little bit about Kevin Deikhoff, your father, and his roots in Illinois. Your songs have a deep sense of place and time. There are 100 years there just in your grandparents. Were they early to the state in the area?

Farmer: Yeah. I mean, the barn was built on that farm in 1888.  It's been standing for a hundred years.

GW: A centennial farm?!

Farmer: A long, long time. That's my Mom's Dad. And on my Dad's side, I remember my Grandpa was, I think, either the first or one of the first people to ever have a car in the town.  I think he was one of the first people to ever even have a car in my hometown, which was pretty amazing.

GW: Well, your roots are really deep.

Farmer: Our town, we go way back. So, both sets of my grandparents were farmers, so that really instilled a lot in me. My dad, who I think I'm more like, was just a free spirit and he wanted to be his own man, which I suppose farmers are as well. But my dad had kind of a wilder side. He was into music and he wanted to not be told what to wear and where to be. His first business was a head shop in Pekin, Illinois called The Freak Boutique. And they specialized in paraphernalia and water beds.

GW: That was kind of the standard issue at that time, I imagine.

Farmer: Big things in the late ’70s, mid to late ‘70s, and that went under. So, he started his own shoe store called Grizzlies, which was cowboy boots and Western wear. And during this whole time, he helped put on concerts like Alice Cooper in the central Illinois area.

GW: So yeah, your musical roots.

Farmer: He did a lot of cool things like that. Ten Years After was his favorite band.

GW: I love me some Ten Years After.

Farmer: Then he had a couple of kids on the way. He said I need to do something different. He started traveling around selling advertising for Yellow Pages. Like me, he was on the road a lot. And even when he did that, he did it in his own way. He was a people person, too. He wasn't a b.s. salesman. He was really a people person, the way he talked to people. He was really good at what he did.

GW: I love it. In every show of yours that I've attended, you often discuss your accent. Having lived in the Springfield, Illinois area, I do hear, more than a touch of the South in central Illinois, especially in the more rural areas where roads are named Possum Trot, Chicken Brisket, Big Dog, and Pet Cemetery. Illinois began settlement from the South. And in the video, you mentioned three years in Tennessee. Do you think your accent reflects a laid-back, countrified-mother-tongue heritage as well as it works well with the rhythm of your storytelling that resonates with your voice? It seems like this blends together really well and becomes something a little bigger when playing your shows.

Farmer: I've had a lot of people ask me where I'm from because they gotta know, where is that accent from? I lived in Tennessee in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, but I don't think it rubbed off on me that much. I mean, maybe just y'all did, but I think I already had the accent kicking before I went down there. You don't notice it really until you travel. When I go up north, I notice people talk much differently than I do.

GW: I go home to Montana and I hear a lot of Norwegian lilts and occasionally some Scottish burr from people out there.

Farmer: Wisconsin and Minnesota, I definitely hear it a lot, but I guess there is a central Illinois twang. And if it if there is such a thing, I have it. 

GW: To my Montana ears. Yes, you do. Anyway, we kind of touched on this a little bit, but you've spent so much of your time in small towns taking the music to the people.  I know you've observed ups and downs in the communities that you know well. I'm seeing some positive changes in some towns. I know there are still downs, too, but I'd like you to lay some observations from the road on me, towns you like to play, and the good venues you know. And we'll ignore the not-so-good.

Farmer: Oh, man, I live in Bloomington, not too far down. I feel like Bloomington has been strong for a long time and I don't worry about Bloomington too much. I think it's in a good place. I really do love Peoria, which is probably been hit the hardest, I think, in the last decade or so. A lot of jobs moving out of Caterpillar in Peoria but I love the downtown area. I love the riverfront, and the surrounding areas in Peoria are just beautiful. Like many of the other amazing towns that I traveled to, I think Peoria has just as much potential as a lot of these other towns or cities that I travel to. I hope it turns around.

GW: I do, too, when you're downtown Peoria, you can still feel the power in the buildings that are in that community.

Farmer: There’s definitely energy down there on Water Street. And they're starting to do some things in the warehouse district. There are a couple of old theaters that are getting revamped. So hopefully that'll turn things around. I don't know. I love Indianapolis. I love Davenport. I love Cincinnati. It seems like the further east you get, the more history obviously you have and some cool things.

GW: But beautiful, beautiful, small theaters.

Farmer: I love St Louis. I don't know if I have a favorite. If I did, I probably shouldn't say so.

GW: No, you probably shouldn’t.

Farmer:  I love Milwaukee. The Midwest has some great, great cities and great music venues.

GW: We are more than just flyover!

Farmer: Absolutely. Minneapolis, those folks, eight feet of snow. It just doesn't bother them. They come to the show, they're there. They’ll all ride a snowmobile if they have to, but they'll get there.

GW: Get their skis on.

Farmer: Whatever it takes. It doesn't even affect them!

GW: Well, in the documentary video that I watched, you use the phrase, hard times, quite often and you use it to describe the plight of the small towns and the farmers in your lyrics. The reality of the difficulties of small-town life and the joys resonates with many that have had similar backgrounds. We can feel what you're saying. Do audiences outside of the Midwest identify with the stories in your songs?

Farmer: I think so. I mean, sometimes I have to describe it and tell them what detasseling is and things like that.

GW: They miss out on that rite of passage...

Farmer: They might not quite get it. I have to remember. I'm going to Florida in a couple of weeks, and just like Colorado, most people who are in Florida are from the Midwest. Usually those places it's understandable. My music comes across because there's a good population of Midwesterners down there. But there are certain places where you have to explain it a little bit more. I think hardships are everywhere. And they're not new.

GW: They're not new.

Farmer: They're probably not going to go anywhere. Last year, I had the best year Chicago Farmers ever had.

GW: Congrats.

Farmer: But it all balanced out to previous years because I spent so much more money on travel and things. You know, things just keep getting more expensive.

GW: Yes. 

Farmer: What I've seen to answer your question, what I've noticed the most about my area, is the next generation of farmers. Unless you're getting land inherited to you, it's just so hard.

GW: It really is.

Farmer: For a young farmer, these combines are worth, well, more than a home in Chicago. That's crazy!

GW: Back then, I remember I was interning with the Soil Conservation Service when the CRP, the Conservation Reserve Program came out, and it was one of the biggest ag programs trying to get land out of production that should have never been in production because of erodibility issues. That was also the same time when huge mechanized agriculture blew up because it was the only way you could buy one of these monster tractors or combines. You had to have a farm big enough to justify it. It was shortly after that you had Willie Nelson doing Farm Aid. It really changed everything. Towns got disrupted because people were moving away. It was a rough time and I don't know where we're going to go with this, but we've gotten a little deep here.

Farmer: Well, that's all right. You know, it's real. It's like the people with a certain last name in these towns are the ones that are going to have the farms that are probably going to always have the farms. And I think my grandpa is down to like 80 acres or something like that. He has this friend down the road that farms it for him now. It's interesting, I've gone to the Farm Progress show in Decatur, Illinois.

GW: Yeah, I've been to those

Farmer: Which is where you see both sides of it. You see the side that we're talking about. But there are also other cool things happening, like making plastic cups out of corn and things like that. That is big in my industry of music. Go to concerts or festivals. You see these plastic cups! Made out of corn. 

GW: If they are truly recyclable, we'll take it.

Farmer: But they're littered everywhere. Now they're working on biodegradable. Plastic cups made out of corn, I would love to see more things like that happen. There's good progress and bad progress for sure.

GW: Circling back, you have that upcoming tour you touched upon. Your shows have always been a good party and a great vibe. Always tons of smiles, whether we're all packed into Chicago Street Pub or spread across the grounds at Shoe Fest or the Bill Monroe Music Park. Those have been good places. And you're just starting your winter tour. It's going to take you to Florida! I really want to fly to Florida to see you there, but I just can't do it. I would love to see you outside of your Midwest area.

Farmer: I've spent the last 19 years touring and I usually wind up in Minneapolis in February. Which, as I said, the people still come to the shows. But it took me 20 years to realize, hey, let's go south in February. I'm really looking forward to that. And they're really lovely. They've got some really nice listening rooms in Florida.

GW. Are you going solo?

Farmer: Yeah, I'm going down solo this time. I've played down there a couple of times now with Todd Snider, who's been a huge influence in helping my career. It's really been a force of getting my name and my music out there. We're going to go down there solo and play a lot of these songwriter listening rooms for maybe 80 to 100 people. Hopefully, if it goes well, we'll bring the band back down and get them a little sunshine, too. it's nice. My wife's family lives down there, so it's kind of like a work vacation to some sunshine.

GW: Good. As your regional presence seems to be poised to expand, are you going to be doing both solo and Fieldnotes shows as you go around the Midwest portion? Will it be a set of each at some of these shows or are you going to do solo shows someplace?

Farmer: The Florida tour is solo, and then when we get back, kicking off in Chicago at Martyrs in March, it's going to be the full band.

GW: All the band.

Farmer: It's really the best of both worlds for me. I get to do my solo folk singer act for some smaller rooms where people come and sit down and listen. And then when I want to rock out and get people up and dancing and grooving and having more of a good time party atmosphere, we bring the band so when I get sick of one, I do the other.

GW: Your songs have lovely danceable melodies. Sometimes I'm listening to the words and damn, I'm dancing to something that's too serious. This is not right. This is like dancing to Mack the Knife at a wedding.

Farmer: I try to just pull you in and have a conversation with you when I play solo. And with the band, it's more of a cut-loose thing.

GW: Speaking of the Fieldnotes, you had to have the pick of all kinds of burly musicians passing their contact info to you. How did you select one of the flashiest best-dressed guitar players around, Jaik Willis? and a talented bassist, most likely to be a candidate for the greatest difference between the height of the upright bass and its player, Charlie Harris; along with a blonde braided drummer capable of multiple instruments at once, Cody Jensen.  Can you talk about the guys?

Farmer: Yes, I got very lucky. Being 44 years old and living in central Illinois, it's not easy to find three really talented people that are willing to just travel and play music all the time. They are hungry to play music, and they're hungry to travel and get in front of audiences. I got really lucky. I've known Jaik forever. The first time I met him was at an open mic. He was singing and playing guitar and playing harmonica and playing piano with his toes. I knew I had to get to know that guy. Just the last couple of years he's starting to get snazzy. He went to Africa, and I think he found somebody who makes suits.

GW: I wondered who his tailor was.

Farmer: He's got a closet full of suits and cool stuff. And Charlie and Cody are the rhythm section. They were in a band called Bones Jugs for years.

GW: I love that band. It was fun.

Farmer: They were fantastic and full of fun and just super talented guys that have played together for so long. That's crucial when you have a rhythm section, that they know what each other is going to do before they do it. Together we're quite the foursome. As you said, they all play multiple instruments. We get a lot of sound out of four dudes.

GW: Yes, you do. In the video, you said that you'd always thought Chicago Farmer would be a band, but the practicalities and your own evolution into your songwriting and performance put that on the back burner. While you love the intimacy of those 75 to 100 people shows and the sing-alongs where they all know the lyrics, will the Fieldnotes allow you to get into those 10,000 people shows that you envisioned back in the video?

Farmer: I don't know about that many, but yeah, there is kind of a ceiling when you're playing solo. There are very few people who can do that. I've played with Todd Snider and he can fill a theater on a Monday and sell it out. In folk music, that's pretty hard to do these days. There aren't too many folks that do that. Maybe Jeff Tweedy, but he's kind of known for his band, you know? I think there are more opportunities for people to come out. I think more people want to see a full band than want to see a solo folk singer singing about his thoughts. 

GW: Yeah, it's a new adventure.

Farmer: It is a new adventure, but I love it. There's just a whole ‘nother energy to it that I can't describe. But it's a beautiful thing when four people come together and play music off of each other and off of the audience.

GW: Yeah, it bounces! I know that you've done a lot of arrangements with your songs, and it's been fun to hear the changes with the Fieldnotes. Will you compose differently for solo shows than for music with the Fieldnotes?

Farmer: I mostly write songs the same way, but there is something that each has its own thing. Like that mattress song, the band hasn't quite figured out how to play that one yet. But when I play it solo, the crowd automatically sings along to the chorus and laughs and claps. It works that way. The song I'm going to go record tonight, it's called Battle Cry and the song absolutely crushes with a band. But when I've tried to play it in my solo sets, it just doesn't quite work. Certain songs work better with the band. Certain songs work better solo, for sure.

GW: I suppose it's still a learning curve, too.

Farmer: Yeah, it really is, because the solos are just the beat and the rhythm. They really have something. If I'm playing solo on a song that really needs that and it's not there, it can be a little odd, but most of the songs transfer well to both. I've never been a band leader before, and that comes with its own challenges, directing three other people and their schedules and their personalities. But all the guys are really easy to work with. I feel like, even though it's my songs, that we are performing, when the four of us are on stage, it's our thing. I’m not a dictator. I'm just kind of the leader of the gang. We all throw in ideas and a lot of times I use their ideas. Sometimes I shoot them down, but sometimes I use them, too.

GW: Because I know you like sing-alongs, in shades of Bad Moon Rising and CCR, and “There's a bathroom on the right,” are there song lyrics that the crowd never seems to get right?

Farmer: Yes, I have a song called Dirtiest Uniforms, which I thought was perfectly clear. I know the kids have called it the dirtiest unicorns and even a couple of adults. I'm like, you obviously didn't listen to any of the rest of the song or any of it if you thought it was dirtiest unicorns. But oh, well, whatever.

GW: It happens, you know, you like I say, you're in the same company as CCR, so that's okay.

Farmer: Well, you have to realize, you sing these songs with these lyrics so many times and they’re in my head, they're obvious! But you have to remember, the people who have never heard these songs before might hear them in a different way. 

GW: I understand that. So while they're equally lovely, is Luna or Kymber, the better traveling partner? Beware your words!

Farmer: My wife is my number one traveling companion. She's got hundreds of thousands of miles under her belt with me, and I'm grateful. Now the three of us were all heading down south together. Yeah, we got a little puppy,12 pounds, so we can just scoop her up and take her on the road. We put her little bed underneath the merch table, and it works out great. It's a family affair.

GW: If you made another video, another examination of Chicago Farmer and what he holds dear, what would change?

Farmer: We made the documentary with a guy named Cary Poplin. He went to Columbia for film school, and he became a UPS delivery guy. So, yeah, he went from film school at Columbia to driving a UPS truck.

GW: There's a dirtiest uniforms thing right there!

Farmer: He always wanted to do some kind of project. He and a bunch of his friends followed me around with cameras for like five or six days. There wasn't a plan. It was all on the fly. If I was going to do something again, I'd want to have a little bit of a plan of things to focus on. My dad passed away in January of 2009, 14 years ago. I like a little more focus on that and what he meant to me and his support and things of that nature. My wife can be shy, but I'd like to have her in it a little more as well. She's a huge part of what I do and my life, obviously.

GW Obviously, it wouldn't be the same without Kymber.

Farmer: At home and on the road, there's only so much you can capture. And when you look back at something you did 12 years ago… there are many questions of why didn't we do this or that? 

GW: Any last thoughts about the upcoming tour and the highlights for the future?

Farmer: I've been grateful to play all kinds of venues, I don't really call places dives. I love all kinds of music venues, but man, we're playing some really cool clubs and some really cool theaters. 20 years is a long time to get to these places that we’re at. But we got here.

GW: They finally opened the door for the likes of you

Farmer: We got here, and it feels really good to play. I'd say they're prestigious clubs. There is a lot of great music that has passed through these walls of these theaters and these clubs that we're playing. These are legendary rock and roll folk clubs!

GW: Hallowed ground like the stage at the Bill Monroe Music Park.

Farmer: There is so much history and vibe. I like to use the word romantic a lot. Across the street from us right now, there is the beautiful Rialto Square Theater. I saw John Prine there! I got to play there myself. I find it very romantic, thinking about all the crazy things that have happened in those walls and the people who have taken those stages and all the things that have been said and sung and shouted and whispered. It's just beautiful.

GW: But, the dives count, too.

Farmer: Absolutely! I'm so happy to be doing it still and playing. I don't have a clue what else I would be doing. Because I still love what I'm doing, I consider myself successful, 20 years later.

GW: If you could open for somebody or have somebody open for you, who would it be?

Farmer: I love Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile. They're probably my favorites right now.

GW: Jason Isbell will be playing at the Rialto Square Theatre for 2 shows in March! Brandi Carlile is just a force of nature! Nice choices.

Farmer: I'm a pretty big fan of both of those folks and the kind of music that they make.

GW: It’d be a good blend.

Farmer: Those two are the heavy hitters that I would love to love to play with. Oh, and of course Neil Young. If he's looking for an opener, I'd be open to that. That'd be so cool. I'd be all about that.

GW: I would love to see that! I would love to see him. I've never had that opportunity. He got priced out of my range a long time ago, which is what we're afraid of with you.

Farmer: Well, no, not at all. Never. Oh, that Bob Dylan guy, too. I’d play with him.

GW: I know they talk about holding a large theater in your hands. It was like seeing Doc Watson back in the day.

Farmer: Amazing!

GW: The place is just totally focused. It was amazing. I like it when people focus and listen to you because you have such good things to tell. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Farmer: Thank you so much! This was fun. And thank you to the town of Joliet and Third City Sound. I’ve played everywhere from Chicago Street Pub to the Rialto Square Theater, to the baseball stadium, to the prison.

GW: You've got all the highlights.

Farmer: I played it. I've played all the major venues in Joliet.

GW: What are we going to have you do next?

Farmer: We'll figure it out.

Check out Chicago Farmer on tour now!

3/3 Chicago, IL Martyrs’  WSG Head for the Hills
3/4 Holland, MI Park Theatre 
3/9 Indianapolis, IN Duke’s INDY 
3/10 Indianapolis, IN Duke’s INDY
3/11 Columbus, OH Natalie’s 
3/16 Davenport, IA Redstone Room
3/17 Bloomington, IL Castle Theatre 
3/18 St Louis, MO Old Rock House  WSG Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
3/23 Madison, WI The Bur Oak 
3/24 Minneapolis, MN Turf Club 
3/25 La Crosse, WI The Main

On March 25, 2023 we went to La Crosse, Wisconsin to see Chicago Farmer and the Fieldnotes at the Main for the final show of the 20th anniversary tour, part one.  Or as I like to refer to it, the first quarter tour, Chicago Farmer plans on celebrating 20 years all through 2023.

I spoke to Chicago Farmer before he and the Fieldnotes went on while Cheeba, the opening act, was playing (more on that later). He said they brought back some old tunes to revisit and some newer ones for this show. Chicago Farmer’s tour solo tour which opened February 3rd at the Broadgauge in Petersburg, Illinois was relaxing, especially with Kymber and Luna along for a working vacation in Florida. He’s given up touring Minnesota in winter for now.

I asked him if the crowds could be overwhelming after going through Covid time.  “I love the live music experience, the energy of people connecting to music together.  It was so wonderful to see people coming out again after the pandemic.  We’re back and saying it out loud!” he said.

On tour, Chicago Farmer and the Fieldnotes played to listening crowds and they played to rocking crowds.  They had a lot of fun when the band teamed up with his friends like Vince Herman, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, or Head for the Hills.  “And there were a lot of new meets with opening acts.  Jaik Willis opened for one of the shows.” – no new meet there, just talent.

The show at The Main in La Crosse, Wisconsin marked a fine end to the 1st quarter of the year.  The venue wasn’t much different in size from the Broadgauge, but more a bar than a ballroom.  I will say the Broadgauge audience sang along better, even getting harmonic in moments, but Central Illinois is Chicago Farmer’s home stomping grounds.

People I chatted with at The Main (a few sort-of-embarrassed-to-admit-to-be-north-shore Chicago ex-pats) were blown away by the storytelling, the songs, and the band.  
The new songs during the show really stood out to me. The show opened with “Battlecry.”

“I’ve been crying but I don’t know why,” were lyrics too appropriate for a long grey winter. The song “Peshtigo” told the story of the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, considered to be the deadliest fire in the US, killing 1,200 – 1,500 people on the same day as the Chicago Fire.  The irony of being Chicago Farmer singing about the Peshtigo Fire while in Wisconsin was not lost on him.  The song was fiery and roaring and properly lit with lots of red light.

“Great River Road,” told the story of two elderly people (based on his grandparents) playing a song called The Great River Road and teaching it to their grandchildren (the Echoes).  It was a tender tribute to generations of family.

“The young people grow up so fast
The old people move too slow
Waiting for the green light to go”

I asked Chicago Farmer if his shadow self, his dark side, is revealed in the lyrics of songs like “The Twenty Dollar Bill,” and “When He Gets That Way.”  He said he writes folk songs and folk songs often have a murder or death at the heart of the story.  Somebody has to die.  He tells it that way.

The Fieldnotes were in fine form, but the sound man stepped away at the wrong time and didn’t get Jaik Willis’ steel guitar mic live as “The Twenty Dollar Bill” began. Combined with Cody Jensen’s mandolin and Charles Harris’s base, the band provided a melodic background for this song that enhanced but didn’t overshadow the story, a tricky balance for a band, especially when they can rock on with songs like “$13 Beers.”

The song “Mattress” had a Bakersfield sound to me.  It is interesting how to hear differences in a song with the band as opposed to hearing it as a solo act in Petersburg, Illinois.

Chicago Farmer said they would return to the southwest Wisconsin area when they play the Driftless Music Garden at People Fest, August 10 – 12.

Chicago Farmer’s 2nd quarter shows open on April 8th at the Southgate House Revival in Newport, Kentucky. 

I noticed he has been climbing in the roster of artist names and headlining a couple of festivals later this year.  He said he’s been working on it, getting better known over time. 

Find Chicago Farmer and the band at Riddle Point Boogie Lake Lemon Conservation District, May 6th in Unionville, Indiana, 

Chicago Farmer and the Fieldnotes will also be at the River Front Concert Series, on June 10th in Havana, Illinois, and the Happy Trails Music Arts Festival at Tamms, Ilinois, July 27-30.

A couple of notes about the March 25 opening act, Cheeba, composed of Christian Chubba Staehly and Greg Cheech Hall, two fine local La Crosse area musicians trading originals and covers while harmonizing and picking.  I enjoyed Hall's bluesy, slide guitar style.  They played a lovely cover of The Beatles, "I’ve Just Seen a Face."  Staehly and Hall organize Cheech’s Deecefest Fest July 28 – 30 at the Bluebird Family Camp in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

By the way, the La Crosse Distilling Company features a Fieldnotes label from whence Chicago Farmer Fieldnotes get their name.  The organic Fieldnotes gin was quite tasty.

First, let’s get through the obvious:

1. If you have never attended any music festival at the Bill Monroe Music Park (BMMP) in Beanblossom, Indiana, do so soon. The main stage is hallowed by both bluegrass and country music legends. It is a place that all fans of live music need to make a pilgrimage to visit.

2. Hearing Sam Bush on that stage blowing up the hot summer night at the Americana Bean Jamboree (ABJ) was a real treat. If you haven’t seen Sam Bush live, shame, shame and get it done. He talked about jamming with John Hartford back in the day at BMMP and played three of his songs, I’m Still Here, Tall Buildings and Illinois River, music to my ears and heart. 

3. The Henhouse Prowlers should also be on your list of must-see bluegrass bands. Nominated for new artist of the year with the IBMA, we are still awaiting the outcome. Their headlining performance Friday, June 2, blew people away that had not witnessed the Prowlers doing what they do best. They do great single-mic harmonies and their cover of Helter Skelter was a rousing finish to the night 

4. In the same category, the Georgia Rae Band and the Mama Said String Band deserve your attention and are touring and playing at festivals everywhere. The Georgia Rae Family Band has the power and the glory of sister harmonies. Mama Said has a fresh bluegrass sound I enjoy. Rather than trying to describe, go listen: Mama Said String Band

All these bands are hot, hot, hot, and put on a great show. They are no-brainers for any fan of bluegrass/jamgrass. But for me, the real story, the heart of Americana Bean Jamboree, was the lesser-known bands out of the Western portion of this country and those local artists rooted in the musical gravity well that is Brown County, Indiana, and Southern Indiana in general. Will Scott, stage manager for the Hippie Hill Stage brought together a fine collection of local talent that sang their hearts out. Scott is an artist in his own right and spent time organizing big New York City musical events. Now living in Nashville, Indiana he appreciates the local talent there and also brings touring artists to Brown County Inn as Entertainment Coordinator. 

On June 1st, after getting things set up at Cabin 4, my husband Floyd and I wandered over to the Bill Monroe stage. While no music had been scheduled, many of the local players and traveling artists agreed to warm up the stage and festival by playing a few songs. The Elkins Jamily played a lovely cover of John Prine’s Angel from Montgomery and a few of their original songs. More on the Elkins Jamily later.

I visited with Dave Sisson after his set on stage Thursday evening. Sisson is a Brown County local and has played and attended festivals at BMMP for 15-20 years. He said playing here is a thrill and it’s a privilege to be on that stage with its history and traditions. He has played on the stage a handful of times. He plays a fine lead guitar, solo or as a duo, and has many side projects in the area.

Sisson fits well into the Americana Bean Jamboree vibe; roots music is influenced a bit by the bluegrass always in the air in Brown County. He said people need to know that BMMP is the best in the Midwest for music and camping. Listing the park as a historical landmark in Brown County seems the right way to protect the site and maybe it would receive more support from the county powers-that-be, he thought.

GW: What makes Brown County a music gravity well?

Sisson: I feel Brown County is slowly becoming a destination for quality live music. Americana, roots, bluegrass, we have a lot of variety around here.

GW: Does the local music scene have community support promoting shows and providing new venues and audiences for musicians?

Sisson: Yes, for the most part, all the groups that played Americana helped support each other. The local community is supportive of live music on the whole. There are a few small groups that think it detracts from our scenic town but I think most of the locals agree that it adds to the character for visitors. 

Sisson remembers the Hartford Memorial Festival run, attending it for 7 years. He loved the jams after things closed up on the main stage each night and would canvas the park, looking for the best jams to jump into. Sisson is currently working on his first full-length album. It’ll be about twelve songs, all originals, some written by his friend Sam Love. On the Hippie Hill stage, Sam Love played harmonica and Frank Jones joined them on bass. He is hoping to release the music in late fall or early winter. Find him on Facebook, David Sisson.

Friday, June 2, the ABJ opened with Alex Dunn on the main stage. He is tall and lean, a talented poet, artist, and performer from points west. We shared a connection over family heritage in Eastern Montana, another land of high lonesome character. His songs were well crafted. I enjoyed Colorado Line from his first album, Scatters Poems, a danceable tune fit for a big western party at the local water hole in some small town. And his new album Southern Star has been in heavy rotation for me. On Southern Star, he covered Sorry Your Sick, written by Ted Hawkins (1936-1995). I associated the song with Chicago Farmer as I have heard him play it a lot. It was nice to hear another interpretation and learn who wrote it. Dunn’s original songs reflect the romance and hope of the West. He said he was influenced a lot by Gordon Lightfoot who wrote with an understanding of life on the western plains. But his writing is most influenced by his love of modern Irish poet John O’Donohue 

More Western connections turned up on the main stage. Hailing from western Montana, Tophouse is a young bluegrass band with a twist. As a fourth-generation Montanan, my first question was, University of Montana? When they all said yes. I said, I went to Montana State University and joked, we’re done here, Go ‘Cats! (This football rivalry goes back to 1897.) The band members, William Cook on fiddle, Joe Larson on banjo, Jesse Davis, on guitar and mandolin with Andy LaFave on keyboards, have a sound much like Mumford and Sons. This young band recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee and this was their first festival as a foursome. As two members (Wm and Jesse) were Music majors; Joe, Business; and Andy, Philosophy, they seem to have the needed skill sets to forge ahead in the music business. Their harmonies are tight and they claim Nickle Creek and Need to Breathe as their primary influences. Let’s hide and watch and see where this young band ends up. 

Americana is at its best when it finds the deep core of being human.

Being human, with all its trials, could be heard in the music of Caitlin “Spanks” Spangler, local Indiana talent opening the Hippie Hill stage. Her voice reminded me of Bonnie Raitt, passionate and raw at times, a warm caress at other moments. Any woman that has experienced tough times, will find a connection to her songs. She said she likes to look tough but she’s really a softie. The audience at the Hippie Hill stage was attentive and supportive of the local acts up there, as dedicated to listening as the performers to playing. She had some stories to tell in her songs for sure. Find her on Facebook at Caitlin Spangler Music. She frequently plays in the Brown County area, often with David Sisson. 

Next up on Hippie Hill was the music of Jason I. Blankenship with Chuck Wills. Blankenship is a man of deep thought as well as a student of American history. He worked as an intern in Chicago at Alligator Records and then as a club manager at Buddy Guy’s Legends in the 1990s. He lives in Nashville, Indiana, and hopes the BMMP venue can keep Bill Monroe’s vision alive and thriving, supporting local music as well as regional and national touring musicians. He leans to a blues style of Americana.

Blankenship wrote an interesting bit on his Facebook page about venues, tribute acts, and concert series offering little room for local acts to open or play at those venues. He understands that venues need to fill the seats to keep the doors open. But he said when local musician support fades, we lose a lot of vitality and creativity in the music. The Blankenship Band

After being a musician for 30 years, Blankenship says he is still learning the industry and is glad for groups and communities helping musicians. He is an administrator for the Network for Original Americana Music on Facebook. And he also recommends Folk Alliance Region Midwest, Farm Folk, located in Lisle, Illinois. This site hosts Zoom meetings on topics pertinent to performers, as well as sessions with Zoom performances. In October, this group hosts The Gathering 2023 with Robbie Fulks as the keynote speaker. 

Currently, Blankenship is assisting his partner, JC Clements, on a new album they will be releasing songs from soon. The album is being produced by Linda Loveless, a talented musician in her own right.  

Otto and The Moaners, another Brown County band from Bloomington are originally from Oakland, CA. Solidly country/blues rock and tight, they visited all the country tropes: rivers, smoking, addiction, big city lights, wind, country girls, and cars in their catalog of original songs. A perfect band for any county fair, danceable, entertaining, and instantly familiar with pedal steel for the right touch at the right time in a song. Otto and the Moaners are songwriter Matt Lundquist on slide guitar; Mark Wayne Minnick on drums; Devin Brown on bass; Ryan Jackson Payton, on pedal steel, and Jerry Miller, on guitar.   Check them out: Ottomobile

Backtracking to earlier in the day at Hippie Hill. Elkins Jamily is a heritage family that settled in Brown County in 1778 and music has always been in the blood. Heather Dawn White, nee Elkins, is a fine songwriter. Her song, Beautiful Brown County, could be an anthem for the area and Four Cold Walls, a prison song, had gravelly voiced angst. Not bad for a young songwriter. And a shout out to Bryleah, her daughter, and likely the next generation of musicians who insisted I get her name right. Heather’s father plays mandolin Heather plays acoustic guitar and Bryleah is learning tambourine. 

One of my favorites at ABJ was The Hammer and The Hatchet, John Bowyer and Jayme Hood. I have heard this duo before and their range and knowledge of Americana traditional music is solid. Their original tunes are lovely. Rose Garden seemed a bit at the bottom of Jayme’s range but I believe she said allergies had been hard on her. David Sisson joined them onstage for a couple of tunes adding grace notes from his slide guitar. Tin Foil Rings, based on a true story, is destined to become a fine sing-a-long song. The funniest song of the entire weekend was their Bailey’s Small Engine Repair, based on a local establishment just down the road from BMMP. I hear they will be getting a band together for some gigs, The Hammer and The Hatchet and the Implements of Destruction. I can’t wait to hear this happen!! They are also working with JC Clements and Jason Blankenship recording alternate acoustic versions of songs on the Clements album, along with Caleb Powers, fiddle, and Megan Palmer, fiddle and piano.

Listened to Wilson Banjo Company as we broke down camp Saturday evening because we had an early leave time Sunday morning as well as Rainwater 4 with Corey Flick playing at the Hippie Hill stage made the work pleasant. (Did I say I loved our cabin?). 

A shout-out to the other bands that played: Ryan Ahlwardt, Scott Ellison, Bourbon Revival, and the  Lowlanders. 

We enjoyed Americana Bean Jamboree 2 and hope this event will continue to grow. We all love the big touring acts but the less well-known bands need to be heard, too. Talking to these musicians and seeing the strange circle many take, often from hometowns to big cities and back to small towns, shows the importance of all music fans supporting local live music. It is how we grow the music, creating connections between people and communities that have vibrant music scenes no matter the size. Music matters.