Baldridge to perform at IFB annual meeting

CHICAGO — Country singer and Illinois native Drew Baldridge will be this year’s musical talent during the Illinois Farm Bureau’s 110th annual meeting in Chicago.

Registration for the event, which will take place Dec. 7-10 at the Palmer House, is $30 and is now open.

This year’s meeting theme is “Planting a Vision” and will feature micro talks, charitable auctions, an ice cream fundraiser, IFB Young Leader competitions and various award programs.

The annual meeting is also a time for IFB members to participate in the organization’s traditional grassroots process and discuss agriculture policy initiatives and priorities for the upcoming year.

“The grassroots policy development process is fundamental to IFB,” said IFB President Brian Duncan. “It allows our members to discuss and debate issues and then vote on polices they feel are best for the organization and Illinois agriculture.”

IFB’s annual meeting will kick off Saturday evening with an opening address from Duncan at 7 p.m. An IFB membership reception and musical entertainment featuring Baldridge will follow the opening session.

Those interested in attending should register through their local county Farm Bureau.

About Baldridge

Baldridge is a country music singer based in Nashville who draws inspiration from growing up and working on his family farm in Patoka in south-central Illinois.

His time spent growing up in small-town America is at the heart of many of Baldridge’s songs, which he hopes will connect with IFB members.

“Growing up on a farm just really shapes you, just the hard work aspect of life and the not giving up,” Baldridge recently told FarmWeek and RFD Radio.

“Now I translate that to music — sometimes you just don’t know what you’re going to get out of it. (With farming), sometimes it doesn’t rain, sometimes the yield is not good. That’s what kind of always has driven me in country music, knowing all the hard work that we had to put in on our farm.”

About performing at annual meeting, he said, “It really excites me because those are my people; that’s where I come from. They can really expect a high-energy show.”

Baldridge’s hit song, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter,” was originally released five years ago. He wrote the song after meeting his wife’s father, mostly as a message to himself to never forget that if he broke her heart, he’d also be breaking her parents’ hearts.

Years later, inspired by his own wedding, Baldridge posted a video with the song on TikTok, which went viral.