Music Review: Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes, ‘FORE!!!!’
Though the themes are darker than past releases, the new EP from this working-class Midwest folk act is bursting at the seams with warmth and heart.
Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes "FORE!!!!”. Album artwork by Half Hazard Press, 2022.
I don’t often think much about album covers—I know they’re an art form unto themselves that many people are passionate about, but I’m not a very visually oriented person. So it was unusual that the cover art (created by Half Hazard Press) for the new EP by Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes stopped me in my tracks.
The two-toned (dark blue and muted yellow) scene depicts four crows sitting on a weathered wooden fence, staring at and illuminated only by a flaming meteorite in the night sky, hurtling toward Earth. Together with the EP title, FORE!!!! (put in quotation marks on the cover as if it’s being screamed by some celestial golfer), it’s funny in a morbid, horrifying way. Are we nothing more than a lump of dirt in a golf course destined for obliteration by a wild shot? (Well, I suppose we are, kind of, but I don’t like to think of us that way too often!) It also calls to mind people’s mostly-but-not-quite-joking wishes throughout the past two years that an asteroid would just put us out of our misery.
The rather cynical, hopeless gallows humor of the cover might lead you to believe that this is going to be one grim ride Chicago Farmer’s about to take you on. But although the themes explored on this EP are darker and sadder than some of their previous releases, FORE!!!! has all the empathy and energy I’ve come to expect from this act.
I’m thankful for that, because besides the clever lyrics and engaging folk-roots sound (and the fun stage patter if you’re lucky enough to see them live), my favorite thing about Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes is the compassion and undeterrable defiance of their working-class story and protest songs, which range from humorous but relatable complaints about gentrification like “$13 Beers” to searing social commentary like “Two Sides of the Story,” a song inspired by the 2014 murder by police (and subsequent character assassination) of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
FORE!!!! explores struggles and heartbreak both personal and universal on its four tracks, lingering on the pain but always with some kind of silver lining, whether it’s resilience, survival or just a reminder that none of us are alone in our struggles. Chicago Farmer, aka Cody Diekhoff, is joined for the first time on a studio record by his touring band The Fieldnotes, and they manage to bring a surprising amount of that live energy and chemistry to this short record, which leaves you eager for more.
Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes. Photo credit: Melody Yvonne.
The opening track, “New Twist,” is ostensibly about a long-separated couple reuniting briefly at an old favorite watering-hole. Diekhoff’s voice aches with pathos as the narrator wallows in memories (“we’d sing your favorite songs til we’d lose our throats”) and struggles to accept how the bar (and their lives) have changed against his will: “There’s all new faces in our old hangout / and they’re playing six strings but I’m too strung-out / to hum and strum to this new twist.”
The piano-driven opening (courtesy of Cody Jensen on keys) and slow waltz tempo give it the feel of a sentimental sing-along, and sure enough, the other band members join in a four-part harmony on the chorus. The piano too is joined gradually by drums and other instruments as the song builds to an emotional electric guitar solo by Jaik Willis and powerful vocal crescendo. Despite the bittersweet feel of it overall, there’s a hopeful moment near the end: “Here I am, I’m doing the new twist and / it’s not too bad if you give it a listen.”
“April 7, 2020” (which we’re honored to premiere today alongside this review!) brings a surprisingly galvanizing energy to a song that’s about everything we all struggled with during the first year of the pandemic. Potent instrumentation driven by Willis’s electric guitar, Jensen on drums and Charlie Harris on bass give Diekhoff a rich backdrop for his urgent, impassioned vocals.
Initially inspired by the death of Americana legend John Prine (as the title suggests), it becomes a kind of rallying cry for a world tired of being isolated and afraid, of being lied to, and of losing loved ones and heroes. You can read more of our thoughts on this track here, but suffice it to say it has the feel of an instant classic that speaks to the here and now but will resonate long after the worst of the pandemic is behind us.
Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes. Photo credit: June Jameson.
The third track, “Windy City Blown Away,” opens with a lonesome harmonica and soft fingerpicking. The sparse, simple lyrics hit hard; Diekhoff based the beginning and ending lines on something he heard a child say on the news in the wake of a Chicago shooting—one that Diekhoff himself narrowly escaped being caught in the middle of:
What do you wanna be when you grow up?
I just wanna be alive
Diekhoff succinctly describes how the incident haunts him, touching on the way these events are too quickly forgotten in our gun-violence-plagued country:
Now I can't get it out of my mind
Like the blues that an old Buddy sings
There’s no real light at the end of the tunnel on this song, but there’s something comforting in its compassion and beautiful expression of a personal yet universal grief. Sharing pain by putting it into music gives us a common language and a way to process difficult conditions and emotions.
That’s always been one of the strengths of country, folk and Americana music, and this is a standout example of that.
Chicago Farmer & Althea Grace. Photo credit: June Jameson.
Althea Grace, an up-and-coming Chicago singer-songwriter who recently competed on American Idol, joins Chicago Farmer on the final track, “When He Gets That Way,” a story song about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. Using the classic country format of trading verses in a kind of conversation, the song tells a story of a friend expressing concern for the woman and offering to help her out “when he gets that way.” She initially refuses his assistance but grows increasingly fearful over the course of the song. The final verse leaves the conversational format to tell listeners what happened:
I came home but not alone, so I took the floor
That night there’s flashing lights and a pounding on my door
Now I got time and sunshine, one hour a day
As for her, I made sure that he don’t get that way
I’m a big fan of murder ballads but I don’t generally sympathize too much with the killers, especially after just having listened to “Windy City Blown Away” and thinking about the loss and grief that violence leaves in its wake. But this track leaves you more conflicted than most murder ballads. An extended, atmospheric outro gives you time to think about the circumstances around it, and about whether it was destined to end up with someone dying, whether the abusive man or a more innocent victim.
Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes manage to cover an astonishing amount of ground, both musically and thematically, in just four songs. But their cohesion as a band and Diekhoff’s deeply compassionate songwriting tie these songs together in a way that makes FORE!!!! feel unmistakably like a complete package.
The band’s kicking off a months-long tour that will cover a wide swath of the U.S., so be sure to see if they’re coming to your area! And grab a copy of the new EP when it drops on March 4.
Listen to their new single “When He Gets That Way”
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
