The Troy Arts Council will present Billy Jonas in concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Claudia Crosby Theater on the campus of Troy University.

Tickets are $20 and will be available at the door. Children under 12 will be admitted free with a paid admission.

Those who would like to become TAC patrons may do so by purchasing season tickets at the theater that will include the Billy Jonas Concert

“Jonas is a multi instrumentalist singer/songwriter who is best known for his brand of ‘funky folk music’ for the whole family,” said John Jinright TAC presenter chair. “He has presented concerts all across North America and his original music is played on home-made ‘industrial re-percussion’ instruments made from found object such as recycled buckets, trash cans and soup cans.”

Jinright said Jonas sings in a clear tenor voice and his guitar work is “adventurous and original” and his songs are “positive and whimsical.”

Billy Jonas Concerts usually include singalongs, bangalongs, whisperalongs as well as on-the-spot improvised songs that involve the whole audience.

“Billy Jonas is bringing along his band so we know it will be a great show and we can be sure that he and his band will involve the audience,” Jinright said. “Billy Jonas is an incredible singer and songwriter and many of his songs have inside jokes that adults really enjoy.

“He has some clips on You Tube that are very popular. Some people have said they are coming to the concert just to see him do, ‘What Kind of Cat Are You?’ Billy Jonas is the ultimate showman. He involves everyone in his show. The audience is his orchestra.”

Today, Jonas will visit Troy and Goshen elementary schools and Pike County Elementary on Thursday thanks to a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The school concerts will be a part of the TAC’s “Big Beat Experience” that will focus on rhythm the first months of the concert season.

“Billy Jonas is the top children’s song writer in the country,” Jinright said. “He writes teaching songs about everything from relationships and good manners to adventure songs. He will have the children singing and making rhythms and he will show them how to make instruments with things that are around the house.

“Jonas will teach the students that you don’t have to buy instruments to sing what’s in your heart.”