RIVER FALLS – The Summer of 2021 has been given many titles referring to owning the summer, ever since the viral video turned meme from Tom Hanks’ son, rapper Chet Hanks, exclaimed Summer 2021 to be his.

And though many have memed off this video since then, wanting possessive ownership of the summer for themselves or their dedicated groups, no one should own Summer 2021 when we are reflecting this upcoming winter on what we did. No, this summer is all about reuniting with friends and family and getting back to doing the things we love.

In River Falls on a Wednesday night, you can find a group of people doing just that at Junior’s restaurant where one of Junior’s very own bartenders, Mike Myers, has created an atmosphere for people to reunite with those they love, thanks to Open Jam Nights.

Myers is a lifelong musician who has more than 20 years of experience performing in front of live audiences.

“I've worked as a musician since I was a teenager, you know, I just immediately took to the drums.” Myers said. “I started at like 10 years old. And then naturally I just kind of started up punk bands. And then figured out, I could pay my rent a lot easier if I was playing country or blues, which I really took a shine to.”

Prior to starting the Open Jam night on Wednesdays at Junior’s, Myers had been filling in for a friend doing the same gig at Wild Badger in New Richmond. It was there that he obtained the idea of doing an open jam gig for Junior’s.

“Mike brought the idea up to me around Christmas time in 2019,” said Jeff Wesley, general manager at Junior’s. “He and a couple other musicians, Jim and Laura Farley, were filling in in New Richmond at an open jam that was at Wild Badger. They recruited Mike and had a ton of fun playing together. Mike was having fun doing that and brought up the idea of doing it at Junior’s. I was like, ‘well, why not at Junior’s? We're totally interested.’ So the Jam started with the three of them running in mid-January of 2020.”

Of course, with anything starting new in 2020, major obstacles came up, especially on the live performance scene. This was the case with the Open Jam at Junior’s, but the problem was short-lived.

“I went to Junior’s, which are always amazing sports about letting me run special events. And I said, ‘Jeff, I'd like to start an open jam here. If that's cool?’ Unfortunately, with COVID impacting everything we ran it for about two months, starting in January 2020, and before the shutdown the performances were much more of a bluegrass kind of country focused thing,” said Myers. “Then I was asked to bring it back last summer and hired a different house band for it. We all have worked in the same circles, we all have played with the same people at different times, everyone in the band is a professional session musician. And it was wildly cool. People were very ready for live music. You know, that's kind of how it came in. It's just kind of started up.”

“Jim and Laura then decide that they would opt out with COVID. They had older relatives living with them and they decided they weren't comfortable, like sharing microphones with people and whatnot. So then Mike put together the new jam band with Justin, who's the main guitar player, he was coming into the jam quite a bit. So they kind of put together something new to keep it going. Then COVID happened and shut everything down for a couple months. When things reopened last May, they got the Open Jam going again and it’s continued on since then,” said Wesley.

Wesley shared how their Open Jam sets their live music apart from other restaurants in town that do live music as well.

“I think just the fact that you never really know what you're going to get every week. You know, if you just compared to us, like when we do live music, if you're like, oh, if Tommy Bentz’ Band is playing, like we know what to expect, playing a long time, we know what kind of music they do and what songs they do and stuff like that. And you might get someone that brings a trumpet and wants to play and then you have the band plan with the trumpet elements or you just get more variety, and different styles of music that you wouldn't normally get with just a regular band.”

For Myers, he sees these Open Jam Wednesday nights as watering a plant he put into the ground, wanting it to grow into something big as a community hub. The potential for Open Jam Nights to reach that peak is here and will rise to something larger over time.

“You know, we have no qualms about who performs. You don't have to be a professional musician to play at the jam. It's an all-inclusive event. We've had guys from all different skill levels on stage. And some of the battle I'm fighting now is some guys were kind of intimidated, like, I don't want to get up there. I'm trying to build that kind of environment where it's, no, we're down for anything, like hop on up. Let's have some fun. I would say, you sign up, you kick the house band offstage to take over the show, or you jam with us and you're the bandleader now. We're always there, in support of who's ever on stage playing, you know, a soul session musician, things like, you know, people, you'd never know their names, but they played on all your favorite shows. So I chose that I want to name the band Smokey Bojangles and the Box of Chocolates, because you never know what you're gonna get. That is super fun for people because it’s not the same show every week, you're not seeing the same musicians, the same songs. It's, it's I don't know what's gonna happen and I'm in charge,” said Myers.

As of now, Wesley and Myers haven’t fully committed to keeping the Open Jam Night going for the fall and winter. However, they’re optimistic that come September, they can figure out a plan.

“We haven't made the decision for the fall yet. Definitely seems like it's trending towards something will continue to fall in winter. We’ll probably see where things are come September and make a decision if we're going to continue into the winter. The way things seem to be trending, I don't see much of an issue. But who knows where things will be three months from now,” said Wesley.

“These things grow organically. I mean, word of mouth. Like I tell people, the best favor you can do is tell your friends. Tell. I say tell your friends. Tell your mom, call your mom, when's last time you called your mom? But you know that word of mouth is really the big thing. I mean, flyers are great, like promotional cards are great. But I mean, a lot of the time it's an old joke from like, the punk scene where it's like you're getting a flyer and say, Hey, you throw this away. You know, people being excited about it and talking about it. Like that's the big thing. Because at the end of the day, I'm really just there to make sure everyone's having a great time,” said Myers.

During a summer where many are reentering the social scene in which we were so comfortable living two summers ago, the Open Jam Wednesday nights offer a chance for the individuals performing and the audience absorbing them to break down barriers people built up in.

As Myers and Wesley shared, they are enjoying Jam Nights’ turnouts so far in the gig’s first full year on Junior’s schedule. Their hope is to continue year-round, and the potential is clearly there. As Myers put it, “each night being a moment you have to be here for. Memories that can never be recreated.”

Photo courtesy of Junior’s