North Carolina native Jonas Friddle began writing songs at ten years old when his dad bought him a yard sale Harmony guitar. Raised on songwriters like John Prine, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman, Friddle developed a deep sense of respect for well-crafted lyrics. It wasn’t until later that he discovered the power in the rhythms and melodies of his native Appalachia. While at Berea College, Friddle abandoned songwriting altogether, choosing instead to study and master songs of the American Old–Time and Bluegrass traditions. Trading in the guitar for a fiddle and banjo he spent the year of 2007 outside the U.S. travelling from country to country seeking out traditional music sessions in dance halls, pubs and living rooms eventually returning to the states and settling in the city of Chicago. Friddle found a home in the Windy City at the Old Town School of Folk Music and immediately began gigging out as an old time banjo picker and jug band blues singer. It was in 2012 that he returned to writing his own songs and released two albums SyncoPony and Belle de Louisville. The song “Belle de Louisville,” inspired by his new wife, went on to win the Song of the Year award in the John Lennon Songwriting competition and to earn him a spot in the Rocky Mtn. Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase. Friddle earned fans in the Chicago folk music scene singing songs that resonated with the countless people who left their homes to try life in the city. In 2013 he became a father to a baby girl and released Use Your Voice, an album that first featured a band of Friddle’s musical partners under the name “The Majority.” Use Your Voice was nominated for Album of the Year in the Independent Music Awards and made clear that the group was gathering influences from every corner of the Chicago music scene and headed towards a sound all it’s own. Jonas Friddle and the Majority’s self-titled album realizes the band’s new sound. The original compositions are a mixture of Rock and Old-Time, New Orleans Trad and Bluegrass, Country and Blues. Musically and lyrically the songs are like stamps in a passport confirming Friddle’s time as a world traveller and collector of sounds. The band currently includes Jonas Friddle: Banjo, Vocals Evan Jacobson: Trombone, Keys Anna Jacobson: Trumpet , French Horn, Fiddle Bailey Doyle: Cello, Vocals Andrew Green: Drums Andrew Wilkins: Bass Maria McCullough: Fiddle, Vocals Geoff Dolce: Electric Guitar