Jonas Friddle and The Majority
Chicago, Illinois, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF
Music
Press
Song of the Year Winner, the John Lennon Songwriting Contest 2012 -
The electricity from the band took the crowd by
force. I couldn’t help but smile and clap along at
the songs. Not only did the band play well – but
they all looked ecstatic doing so.
- Pete Kosmal, Midwest Action - Midwest Action
Their sound is at once huge and intimate...
Their enthusiasm is infectious. I was grinning like
an idiot and bouncing along before I realized
what was happening to me.
- Erica Elam, The Chicago Reader - The Chicago Reader
[Friddle] deftly explores just about every nook and cranny of modern folk, from revivalist antique appropriation to protest songs to modern love songs. The immaculate arrangements would sell it, if his lithe voice hadn’t already given it away. Amazing stuff.
-Independent Clauses - Independent Clauses
...full of good music with an inventive and creative twists which judging from their accomplishments and awards have made them many fans. That this band enjoys what they do shows in this their 3rd CD. It was hard for me to choose which of these 13 songs best represent their musical approach, but I especially enjoyed the Jonas Friddle original, “Man Was Made To Fly,” the advanced, "Bully In the Alley” and the traditionally rendered, “Sail Away Ladies.” The other songs on this program are all well written, arranged and performed giving this band a musically solid brand name for good music.
I think anyone looking for some very good, not mainstream, entertaining, professionally performed music will really like this recording.
Have A Good Time,
M.V. Casey -
And that’s why this sweet little song, which I play on repeat when I’m overwhelmed with a generalized homesickness, is as startling as it is comforting. - The Hillville
I once heard a comment, that I agree with, at a Calexico concert that anytime there’s both a trumpet and a slide guitar on the same stage it’s going to be a good show. Having listened now to the latest from Jonas Friddle & the Majority, Use Your Voice, I’m going to say that the combination of trumpet and banjo belongs in the same category. Imagine if The Soggy Bottom Boys from O Brother Where Art Thou played the Cotton Club in the 20’s. Try to wrap your head around that, because that’s the juxtaposition of genres on this record.
The album is rough half traditional songs with new arrangements, and half new songs from Friddle. I suppose the traditional songs are where the instrumentation of the group most hits you. Exemplary of this is Old Mother Logo. It starts with the classic sound of Friddle’s claw hammer banjo and then, suddenly, a French horn bellows its brassy presence. Surprising? Yes. But it’s awesome, too. The most “normal” sounding of the traditional tunes is Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy with the horns doing a sort of New Orleans second line sound that conforms a little more to something you’ve heard before. My favorite on the album is Tired Chicken Blues, a country blues number that weaves in a sassy toilet-plunger-muted trumpet and some classic old Hammond organ sound.
The new songs on the record are no slouches either. Friddle does a superb job of integrating the sounds and arrangements and these could just as easily have been composed 50 years ago and just given a new treatment. Rabbit is a musically expressive proxy of a rabbit hopping down the lane. Man Was Made To Fly has the biggest sound on the album, tinged with some gospel influences. Biscuit Baking Blues is also a stand-out with the background vocals sounding a little like Motown doing a biscuit ad for the radio.
Jonas Friddle cover Some days I’m content to listen to my old favorites and music I’ve known and loved for years. Other days I really want to hear something new. When that mood strikes you, go grab some of Use Your Voice and really scratch that itch. - Twangville
just…stunning. They felt like home and I love them for that.
Samantha, Folk Hive -
Discography
Jonas Friddle & The Majority (2016)
Use Your Voice (2013)
Belle De Louisville (2012)
SyncoPony (2012)
Photos
Bio
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 Jonas 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.
Band Members
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