Chicago Farmer’s Cody Diekhoff acknowledges that “Peshtigo” is one of the most emotional songs he’s ever recorded. And it’s about an event that occurred more than 150 years ago. Happening the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Wisconsin’s Peshtigo forest fire claimed more than 2,000 lives.
“Many described it as a tornado or a firestorm from hell blowing through the town,” says Diekhoff. “Some jumped into the river or even wells trying to survive. We tried to capture the screams, the confusion and the despair during those last moments as they were ‘praying like hell for rain.’ But prayers aren’t always answered—or they’re answered too late.”
Available March 6 via LoHi, Homeaid is Diekhoff’s fourth LP as Chicago Farmer, a name that references his current hometown. He grew up in the tiny Illinois farm community of Delavan (current population: 1,500). That salt-of-the-earth upbringing gives Diekhoff’s rough-hewn roots rock and indie folk a solid populist footing even when it ventures into subject matter far more personal than “Peshtigo.”
“Thirty-some years ago, I discovered Hank Williams and Nirvana on the same day,” says Diekhoff. “I remember thinking that someday I was going to combine those two sounds. ‘Peshtigo’ seemed like the perfect song to do so. It was also very fitting that the band and I recorded it at Pachyderm Studios in the very same room where Nirvana cut In Utero.”
We’re proud to premier Chicago Farmer’s “Peshtigo.”
—Hobart Rowland
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