The JR Band fondly remembers the early days of jamming at a local coffee shop.

The Bay City, Michigan duo of John Patrick (vocals, guitar) and Randy Juhl (vocals, guitar, bass, violin) revisits the camaraderie and creativity that arose from those caffeinated bluegrass sessions on “Heart Street.”

“It was called Brewtopia, and we played there for many years. I have a DVD where we started at two o’clock and ended at eight o’clock; it was six hours of bluegrass,” said Juhl about the title track from the Americana duo’s latest album, Heart Street.

“I hooked up with Rusty [Beyer], who was one of my friends, and he directed me toward the coffeehouse where we played in the bluegrass band for many years … and that’s where I met John.”

While the bluegrass band eventually dissolved, Juhl and Patrick continued performing together and became a duo about three years ago. Today, The JR Band celebrates their longtime musical partnership and the spirit of community on “Heart Street.”

Sentimental banjo transports Patrick to the past as he sings, “There’s a place we go / Where the music plays / A cup of coffee, an old café / Banjo strings ringing / Ring me back to life.”

“It’s about getting out of our weekly routines, too, because everybody works,” Juhl said. “It’s like, ‘Let’s go play some music.’”

Patrick quickly echoed Juhl’s sentiment: “It was another real easy song for me to write; I got started on it and just blew right through it. I teach school, and I always thought on my way from that school … ‘I can’t wait to get there to go play with those guys.’”

The track’s name and album title also come from Juhl’s home-based Heart Street Recording Studio.

“We’re sitting in it right now; the street name is Hart Street. My girlfriend came up with the idea to name [the studio] Heart Street … and we named the album Heart Street,” said Juhl, whose band moniker comes from the “J” in John and the “R” in Randy.

“Then she said, ‘John, you have to write a title song,’ so John went home and wrote it the next day at two o’clock in the morning. He came back and said, ‘Here’s our ‘Heart Street’ [song].”

Good Mood to Dream Song

“Heart Street” is one of a dozen timeless tracks from the duo’s debut album, which features rich elements of bluegrass, folk and country. Spirited acoustic instrumentation and heartfelt vocals guide listeners through down-home tales of love, adventure, nostalgia and hope.

The hopeful opener, “Good Mood,” pays homage to family and their unwavering support during hard times.

Alongside grateful acoustic guitar and violin, Patrick sings, “But you walked up to me / And said don’t worry / You gave me a smile / Made me laugh / Took away my blues.”

“When my wife and I have money shortages, she always says, ‘Ah, don’t worry about it, it will work out.’ It always does,” Patrick said. “A good dog works, too; he always cheers me up.”

The JR Band also finds comfort in the unexpected love of another on “The Leaf,” a tender ballad filled with ethereal acoustic guitar, serene mandolin and buoyant violin.

Juhl sings, “If you let me in / Maybe I could be your friend / Don’t know what we’re going to do / Now that I’ve fallen next to you.”

“It’s based on online dating, and I never resolved it into a good or bad ending because I had both experiences. The last one is my girlfriend, so it worked out,” Juhl said.

“But that song was more about the expectation of meeting somebody and seeing hopefully that it would progress into something else. I just took it up to that expectation point … I didn’t tell the whole story.”

The band tells more of a somber story on “The Ghost,” which chronicles the legend of Minnie Quay’s death in Forester, Michigan on Lake Huron. In 1876, Quay, 16, fell in love with a sailor, but her parents disapproved of the relationship.

The sailor later died when his ship sank in a storm, and Quay grieved the loss by wearing a white dress, jumping off a nearby dock and taking her own life. Locals claim her spirit escaped the family’s gravestone and that her ghost has been seen walking the lake shore ever since.

Backed by wistful acoustic guitar, Patrick honors Quay’s legend in “The Ghost” while singing, “I stood and stared / I wasn’t scared / You filled up my head / With the words that you said / Then you moved by.”

“It’s a sad story, but a true story. She drowned and her parents had left town, but she was left in charge of her other siblings. She just walked off the dock and that was it,” Juhl said.

“Her grave is close by within a few blocks of where that happened and hundreds of people visit it every year. They leave trinkets, and they say if you don’t leave something, she will follow you.”

After exploring the local history behind “The Ghost,” The JR Band spotlights the blues on the traditional song, “I Know You Rider.”

Traveling piano and violin accompany Juhl as he sings, “My mind was wandering like wild geese in the west / Sun gonna shine in my backdoor someday / That sun gonna shine in my backdoor someday / March winds will blow all my cares away.”

“Hot Tuna’s [version of the song] is my inspiration … it’s similar sounding, but they did more of a coffeehouse, laid-back thing. I had an idea of bringing in a piano and having a western, honky-tonk sound,” said Juhl, who invited Mike Thomas to play piano on the track.

“He’s pretty good; he can handle anything. I sent him the song and he sent me back his cut. I sent it back and said, ‘Don’t hold back; this is all about the piano,’ and the second time he nailed it, so I incorporated that.”

Finally, the band closes Heart Street with the soaring instrumental, “Dream Song,” which features layers of Juhl’s atmospheric acoustic guitar taking flight.

“Before this room was a studio, it was a family room. I was sleeping on the couch, and I woke up and heard the tail end of a song playing on some radio station,” said Juhl, who’s inspired by The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

“I caught the last 10 seconds of the song, and this was like 20 or 30 years ago. I grabbed my guitar and tried to remember as much as I could and … it morphed into what it is now.”

Two-Way Street

The JR Band spent a year writing and recording Heart Street’s 15 tracks at their namesake studio. They workshopped several new songs in preparation for the album’s release this past spring.

“I bring them in ready to go, and they just seem to come to me,” said Patrick, who’s inspired by bluegrass music and Ricky Skaggs. “For me, the best time to write is in the middle of the night; my brain is more creative.”

That creativity also poured into the duo’s recording process, which included live takes, layers and contributions from other musicians. Along with pianist Mike Thomas, The JR Band collaborated with bassist Bob Rostollan, banjoist Kelly Sible and mandolinist Rusty Beyer.

“We’ve played these songs live many times, and we kind of piecemeal it in here,” Juhl said. “I do a little bit of tuning by the hundredths of a pitch just to bring things up and minimize changes.”

Outside of the studio, the band continues to grow their sound on stage through regular live shows in the Tri-Cities area and northern Michigan. They’re performing Sept. 24 at Frankenmuth’s Prost Wine Bar & Charcuterie, Sept. 29 at Bay City’s MI Table, Sept. 30 at Bay City’s Old City Hall and Oct. 4 at Bay Port’s Bay Port Inn.

“We’re both preferential to what we’re doing now … but it’s more Americana because it’s a mix of different genres with folk, country and bluegrass,” Juhl said. “Our wish is to do bigger venues where people will listen … and our big bucket list [item] is to do something at The Ark.”

Looking ahead, The JR Band plans to continue promoting Heart Street while writing and recording new material.

“We’re going to keep marketing [the album] and coming up with new things,” Juhl said. “We need to put another song out soon so that people know we’re still here; our goal is to do a single or an EP.”