Our guest this week is Cody Diekhoff, better known as Chicago Farmer.

He grew up in the small farming community of Delavan, Illinois, before moving to Chicago in 2003. Over the past two decades, he has built a devoted following through relentless touring, first as a solo performer and more recently with his band, the Fieldnotes.

Along the way, he has shared stages with Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, Greg Brown, the Wood Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Wayne Hancock, Greensky Bluegrass, Del McCoury and Gene Ween.

His album Flyover Country was recorded with members of the Band of Heathens. and 2026’s Homeaid, his first full-length release in six years. Flyover Country 

Elmore Magazine says he has “the novelist’s gift of building a suspenseful story to a surprising conclusion.”

No Depression declared: “If the Midwest is looking for a voice, the search is over.”

And the Chicago Tribune praised him for “some of the better roots songwriting in Chicago today.”

Cody is a very very old friend of mine. We were both coming up in the Chicago folk music scene 20 years ago. He’s one of my favorite modern artists. And he should have been on this podcast many years ago by now. I got a chance to catch up with him on the phone a few weeks ago to hear about his journey so far.

This episode originally aired on November 5th, 2021.

John Flansburgh, one of the founding members of this groundbreaking indie-rock institution, stops by the show to talk about his creative process and how his band has navigated the music business for the last four decades.

Our guests this week are Gabe Dixon and Mike Mattison of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Grammy-winning roots ensemble led by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.

Formed in 2010, their debut album, Revelator, won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album, and the group has since become one of the country’s premier live bands, selling out Madison Square Garden and playing more than twenty shows at Red Rocks.

Mike Mattison has been working with Derek Trucks for more than two decades. He joined the Derek Trucks Band as lead vocalist in the early 2000s and became a founding member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He is also one of the group’s principal lyricists and co-wrote one of its best-known songs, “Midnight in Harlem.”

Keyboardist, singer and songwriter Gabe Dixon joined the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2019. Before that, he led the Gabe Dixon Band and built a solo career of his own. Within Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dixon has become a key songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist.

The band has appeared on Austin City Limits, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live

NPR called the band “a deeply skilled and spirited ensemble,” while Rolling Stone has praised its “freewheeling, soulful sound.”

I got a chance to catch up with Gabe and Mike to hear about their musical journeys so far.

This episode was originally published on March 5th, 2021.

The renowned troubadour from Louisiana found his commercial success in music later in life; he reflects on the journey that brought him to that peak.

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This week on The Working Songwriter, we're thrilled to step out of our normal comfort zone by welcoming one of the country's most acclaimed young novelists. Originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, author Stephen Markley now makes his home in Los Angeles. He attended Miami University (of Ohio) for his undergraduate degree before being accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. 

Simon & Schuster published his debut novel, 'Ohio,' in 2018. The book was widely praised for its unflinching portrait of post-9/11 rust-belt America. Then, in 2023, he returned with the massively popular novel, 'The Deluge,' a work of ficiton about climate change that 'The New York Times' named as one of its notable books. 'The NYT Book Review' also said that, "'The Deluge 'shows the range of its author's gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building."

Of the same book none other than Stephen King said, "[It is] simply put a modern classic. If you read it you'll never forget it." He also named it as the favorite book he had read the year that he read it.

Markley also works as a screenwriter in LA as a member of the writers room for the Hulu comedy series 'Only Murders in the Building,' which stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez. 

What a thrill it is to welcome onto the show such a profoundly talented artist who falls outside our normal realm of expertise... I think there's a lot for songwriters to learn on this cross-discipline episode of the podcast.

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This episode originally aired on June 25th, 2021.

Chris Carrabba, the auteur behind this legendary emo band, discusses the twists and turns of a career that has included Gold records, MTV music awards, and truly devoted fanbase.

Our guest this week was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but, just like Davey Crockett, got to Texas as soon as he could. Dale Watson began his musical career playing the clubs of Houston before decamping to Austin and becoming a fixture in the live music capital of the world. The music machine in Nashville never fully embraced Watson’s traditionalist combination of Western swing, rockabilly, and country, but he’s built a devoted cult following the world over on his own. It’s a style of music that he calls “Ameripolitan.”

Watson has toured with all the greats: Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. He’s appeared on The Late Show with David Lettermen, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and of course Austin City Limits. He’s performed at Stagecoach, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, and a host of other festivals.

He was a 2005 Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee and he was awarded the title of Texas State Musician in 2007. He founded the Ameripolitan Music Awards in 2014. The Austin Chronicle calls him their “local honky tonk hero” and Saving Country Music says that “Dale Watson is all about keeping the honky tonk traditions alive.”

I got a chance to catch up with Watson a few months ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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This Greenville, South Carolina native is a Grammy-nominated troubadour known for his tireless touring schedule. Originally aired on December 18th, 2020.

Our guest on the Working Songwriter this week hails originally from Boston, Massachusetts and now makes his home in Toronto. Joe Pernice got his musical start, though, in Northampton, MA. At the time, it was a hot bed of indie music creativity. His band the Scud Mountain Boys built a loyal following in the 1990s with a string of critically acclaimed releases. He’s recorded for Sub Pop, One Little Indian, Team Love, and New West Records.

Over the years Pernice has collaborated with a variety of blue-chip songwriters such as Aimee Mann, Neko Case, Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub), Jimmy Webb, Rodney Crowell, and Jim White. He’s also a man of many talents; his novel It Feels So Good When I Stop was published by Penguin Books in 2009. NPR calls him “a workhorse of a songwriter who delivers hard truths with the softest of whispers.” Brooklyn Vegan declared, “Few songwriters today imbue frustration and anguish into the sweetest of melodies as Joe Pernice.”

I got a chance to catch up with him a few months ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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This episode was originally aired on September 18th, 2020.

The celebrated singer and songwriter describes her initial ascent to the top of the charts with her debut album and how she has been able to string together many interesting chapters of her career.