On ordinary nights, Borelli’s Pizza in Lincoln Square, a short walk from the Damen stop on the Brown Line, is an unassuming Italian joint frequented mostly by families. Every Thursday evening, though, the place is so packed with musicians that it can be hard to find an empty chair.
Thursdays mean Banjo After Dark at Borelli’s. The structure of this weekly gathering is always the same – a performance on the restaurant’s stage by a local folk or acoustic artist at 7 p.m., followed by a large, raucous jam session from 8 to 9 p.m. You’ll encounter familiar banjos, fiddles and guitars here, but you’ll likely also spot some more unusual instruments – an accordion, a dobro, a musical saw, or even a washtub bass.
The musicians range in age from elementary school children to senior citizens, and in expertise level from absolute beginners, who have only just mastered the three or four chords used in most of the jam session’s songs, to seasoned players and professionals.
“You’ll get, like, eighth graders here, smoking everybody. You’ll get people who are in their seventies who just picked up a guitar,” said Lou Wright, who plays the double bass and has been attending the jam session on and off for about three years.
Jonas Friddle sits at the 12 o’clock position in the circle, in front of the stage. Jonas, who is Banjo After Dark’s founder as well as an accomplished singer-songwriter and banjo player himself, “calls” each song’s title and chord progression; plenty of the songs chosen are requests from the participants.
The songs performed belong to the old-time traditions of American folk music. Old-time music is a genre of American folk music that originated in the Appalachian mountains, with roots in the folk music of the British Isles. It is played in a string-heavy acoustic band, just like the ensemble that gathers at Banjo After Dark each week.
Old-time songs are usually simple enough to learn quickly, which is part of their popular appeal. “We keep it really easy,” Friddle said, “We’re mostly about people joining and having a good time, we’re not trying to do anything that people can’t keep up with.”
In addition, anyone who can play a few simple chords can easily stumble along to each song even if it’s their first time encountering it. Friddle makes a point to publish videos and chord charts on his website for those who want to prepare beforehand.
“If people want to join and jam, it gives them a little advance notice on how to… on what the tunes are, and then, actually, some tutorials on how to play some of the songs,” Friddle said.
Friddle began leading jam sessions at the Grafton Pub in Lincoln Square nearly 15 years ago. When the pandemic came, he had to get a little creative to keep the sessions going.
“On the normal nights, we would have a jam, recording just a little video by myself in my room playing a tune, and then posting it up, thinking that maybe the people who used to come over to the jams could sit around and look at it and think about playing,” Friddle said, “Just something to keep it going. And I just called it ‘Banjo After Dark’ because it was always after dark, and I would play the tune and post it up.”
After the lockdowns ended, Friddle was ready to start hosting in-person jams again, and he found a space in Borelli’s. In the four years since Banjo After Dark’s current iteration began, the number of participants has grown rapidly. Originally, only about a dozen people would show up. Nowadays, Friddle says it can be “40, 50, 60 people, sometimes.”
Paul Gaynor, a banjo and guitar player who has been coming to Banjo After Dark for nearly four years, said the jam session is “the best thing ever.”
“The session is ‘fundamentally about community,’” Gaynor said, “You know, everybody comes together and to make music together in the moment, there’s nothing that feels so good.”
Lou Wright said Banjo After Dark was “the best part of the week.”
“It’s the most welcoming jam in the entire world. It has the least rules and the least judgement. It’s just an extremely friendly space. But, nonetheless, I’d say a pretty fairly high quality of music gets played, even though everyone is so chill and welcoming,” said Wright.
