Sundays on the Square features The Jonas Friddle Trio. This is a series that began in June and continues with weekly concerts into September. Plan to get together with your friends on the historic Woodstock Town Square for an evening (5-7 pm CDT) to celebrate music, summer, fun, and friends. Read more below about Sundays on the Square, one of the best things about summer — and it’s FREE!
We will enjoy these concerts in AUGUST:
Sundays on the Square features The Jonas Friddle Trio, which includes Jonas Friddle with Anna Jacobson and Andrew Wilkins.
Jonas Friddle is a singer, songwriter and Old-Time banjo player whose songs have received The John Lennon Songwriting Award, First Place in the Great American Song Contest and a nomination for Album of the Year in the Independent Music Awards. His tunes bear the marks of a musician who has done his time in pub sessions and square dance halls, and his writing is full of imagery, honesty and humor.
Friddle was raised in the mountains of North Carolina and learned to play guitar on a yard sale Harmony six string. He was already writing songs by the time he got to Kentucky at age eighteen. There, the bluegrass pickin’ and old-time dances turned him on to the power and joy of traditional folk music.
Jonas added a mandolin, fiddle and banjo to his arsenal and got a job slapping bass with the college bluegrass band. After serving his time in higher education, he spent a year traveling around the world playing music in pubs and living rooms. In 2007 Jonas landed in Chicago, started the Barehand Jugband, the Sleepy Lou Old-Time duo and began teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Since then he has released multiple studio albums under his own name and with the folk supergroup “The Majority.” During that time his music has won multiple awards and been featured online at American Songwriter, Huffington Post and Paste.
Recent years have brought Friddle’s focus back to songwriting and with the release of his latest album “The Last Place to Go” he puts out his best songs yet. A collection of sung stories backed by the sound of drums, fiddle, dobro, electric guitar, bass, organ and trumpet.
Here are highlights of their performance from last year’s Sundays on the Square:
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 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
just…stunning. They felt like home and I love them for that. ~ Samantha, Folk Hive
...good music with an inventive and creative twist… ~ M.V. Casey, Banjo Hangout
Sundays on the Square in 2023 run every Sunday, June 25 – Sept 3, except for July 16 (the Woodstock Folk Festival is always scheduled the third Sunday in July).
Enjoy some great bands from 5:00 – 7:00 pm CDT. We gather on the historic Woodstock Square, Cass & Van Buren Streets, Woodstock IL 60098. Shows vary, some with one and some with two acts, featuring local, regional, and national talent.
Restaurants on the Square are usually open on these evenings with carry-out items, but please confirm with specific places. Of course you can bring your own food items and picnic on the Square. Also, be sure to bring chairs!
Sunday evenings on the Square are always a memorable part of summer in the Woodstock area. Watch this website for updates and specifics on the bands. Better yet, subscribe to our email list if you aren’t already on it!
For the entire Summer 2023 Schedule, check HERE.
We appreciate your contributions in support of music in Woodstock. You may contribute to Off Square Music and also to specific performers using the buttons in the left column of most pages on this site.
These FREE summer concerts are brought to you by Off Square Music, the Woodstock Opera House, the City of Woodstock, and the Woodstock Hotel/Motel Tax Grants to the Arts — as well as your generous donations. It truly takes a village (and a state, and a few cities, a couple of guys with wagons and an ice cream vendor).
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