[windmill rattling]
[organ music]
- C'mon girls.
- Jimmy Voegeli seems to have lived
the classic Wisconsin farm story.
- Definitely born into this. Yeah.
- His ancestors came from Switzerland
and settled just south of New Glarus.
- Our family homesteaded this in 1854 I believe.
- His father was a pioneer in bovine genetics and helped bring
the World Dairy Expo to Madison.
He studied dairy science at the University of Wisconsin.
But something happened on the way to Jimmy
becoming a 5th generation dairy farmer.
- About my junior year I started thinking uhhh,
you know, I'm not quite feeling this like uh, like I should.
- What he was feeling was the blues.
- Hey everyone. Welcome.
We're going to have a lot of fun.
[piano playing]
- It turns out, Jimmy had the classic
musician's childhood too.
- Our whole family has always been musical.
My mom and dad met.
My dad was playing in a polka band playing trumpet and
they met at a show.
[organ note]
- Gimme some low end.
[low organ note]
- Like most young struggling musicians,
Jimmy was at a crossroads.
- Music was always one of the most important things
in my life.
It always was.
But making a living is important too.
And they made me an offer to come home and help out.
And again, I reluctantly did it.
[cow moos]
- But unlike most farmers, Jimmy has some flexibility
in his schedule.
[cell phone ringtone] - Here we go.
- With his brother running the genetics side of the farm...
- Another breakdown.
- ... Jimmy could focus on crops and equipment...
- If it ain't broke, it ain't ours.
That's our motto.
- ... and keep playing music on nights and weekends.
- When I take off to go on gigs, the guys like,
"Oh you're going to screw around while we're here working."
Well playing gigs is no vacation either.
Ten years of go play gigs, come home, change,
go out to the barn and do chores just like my father did.
- Eventually his day job took a backseat
after a certain festival in Wausau.
- We're playing and I'm playing a solo.
And I get done with the solo and got a standing ovation.
It was great. It was really cool.
We get done with the show, my dad came up to me and
he said, "I was so proud."
And then choked up and just walked away.
And so that was the day that I became a musician first.
- Can you believe we get paid to do this?
We get paid to do this.
[blues music]
- Jimmy's band has had quite a bit of success since then.
- That is pretty cool when it comes together.
And it comes together more and more and more
the more we play together.
So that, that's fun.
[pats cow]
- C'mon.
- But the cows keep him well grounded.
- C'mon.
- They don't know any different.
You're late. Feed me!
[bluesy piano music]
- The farm has a heavy influence on his music.
- I'm constantly writing stuff down or hearing a rhythm inside,
hearing a groove inside.
Yeah, that happens all the time.
Most of the songs that I've written have
for sure been down here at the farm.
-? Please, please.
?Baby, please don't go.
- But you won't hear him sing about the Brown Swiss blues.
- It's almost, it's almost like sacrilegious in a way.
I almost feel like I shouldn't do it.
It's too obvious in a way.
- He's found other ways to merge his two lives like
building rolling legs for his 300-pound Hammond organ.
- This is what a farmer does when he's got a few extra
minutes and bored with some metal.
- The most profound crossover is located just outside his
front door, where an old barn will become his music studio.
- It was at the home farm.
It was built a 110 years ago by my great grandfather
and grandfather.
- When the old barn needed to come down,
Jimmy decided to rebuild it at his place.
- When we took the outside boards off,
it exposed some writing that was on the oats bin inside the barn.
And in there was signatures from my dad when he was a child.
And my uncle had carved his name in there.
- He thinks the wood came from trees on the property.
- Yeah, it says, "Horse barn raised November 9, 1903."
This whole corner is going to look like the oats bin.
This is going to be my music studio.
- He believes his polka-playing father
would have appreciated this space.
- I can sense my dad and my grandfather in there
all the time.
I have to show you my little project I have going on.
- Jimmy's life is still a classic farm story.
[cow moos]
just now with a bluesy soundtrack.
- ? Where have you gone?
Goodnight everybody!
We'll see you in a couple weeks. Woo!
[bluesy piano and horn music]