Biography

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Born and raised in the small town of Westerville Ohio, Jacob Sweet has been playing musical instruments since he was 8 years old. Originally starting out on violin, he switched to the guitar at age 12 after seeing a family friend play “Johnny B. Goode” at a local bandshell. Needless to say, his violin hasn't been played much since. In 1990, Jacob moved to Chicago to study music at the DePaul University Music School where he graduated with a degree in Jazz and Classical Guitar. Despite the stuffy conservatory experience, he never strayed from his rock and folk roots and has been a fixture on the Chicago music scene ever since.

He has performed literally thousands of shows at some of the largest and most prominent venues in the country, as well as many of the smallest and most disgusting. He has performed onstage or as an opener with many well known names in popular music, including Train, The Goo Goo Dolls, Freddy Jones Band, Blues Traveler, Poi Dog Pondering, Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Lowen and Novarro, Michelle Branch, Gary Allen, and many others. He has performed as sideman and worked as a co-writer for many up and coming songwriters and does frequent recording sessions.

His guitar playing has been featured on numerous national commercials including spots for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Red Lobster, and Midas Mufflers as well as several official campaign commercials for Barack Obama.

When not performing, he can be found teaching guitar and voice at the Old Town School of Folk Music, an internationally recognized community music school where he has been on the faculty since 1997. In 2017 he was awarded the school’s “Distinguished Teaching Artist Award” in recognition of his excellence in the classroom.

Although there is not much he would rather do than pick a guitar and sing a tune, when he must do something else, he is an avid reader of history and classic literature, with a soft spot for trashy autobiographies and his wife’s US Weekly magazines. He enjoys painting and drawing, going for long walks (he once walked the entire 28 mile length of Chicago’s Western Avenue in one day), and occasionally when the surf is up, hits the shores of Lake Michigan for some very cold great lakes surfing…really.

Jacob Sweet is happily married to the greatest woman on earth, Emily Muskovitz and is the proud daddy of 2 girls, Adira Ruth and Nina Florence. All in all, he is just tickled pink to be living the life he leads

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