What sort of music would you expect a farmer to make? It’d be straightforward, no-nonsense, grounded in tradition but with the broad view of a wide-open field. Farmers have a well-earned reputation for laconic wisdom, so you might expect their songs to be short, witty, and straight to the point. Farmers are in touch with time, change, and the cycle of the seasons; they know about life and death. Most of all, though, they know about eggs.

It’s an egg song that Dennis J. Leise, Chicago-area farmer and internationally recognized country, folk, and rockabilly musician, is serving today. “How Do You Want ‘Em Made” is chock full of metaphor, clever turns of phrase, subtle come-ons, and endless possibilities. But it’s also a song about breakfast — one whipped up by a culinary expert who grows the food he cooks and who believes in keeping things wholesome, even when he’s cracking wise about mortality.The new single comes on the heels of a series of remarkable releases, each of which has further deepened Leise’s character, perspective, and reputation for straight talk. “Nobody’s Coming,” which prompted a feature story in the Chicago Reader, took on religious belief in language that was simultaneously funny, touching, and excoriating. The follow-up “Hurry Up and Die” was just as frank – and like its predecessor, it drew from gospel and sacred bluegrass traditions to make some salient points about life not exactly authorized by the church. And there was nothing squeamish at all about “Dipshits,” which might be the most plainspoken, most hilarious song about cellphone addiction ever recorded.