Joe Cirotti Trio — acoustic trio with fresh, unconventional approach — builds an impressive following

ED SILVERMAN

The Joe Cirotti Trio (from left, Tommy Coyle, Pete Lister and Cirotti) at Boonton Coffee Co.

On a cold, gray afternoon in February, a steady flow of cars filled a gravel parking lot and adjacent stretches of patchy grass at Bernie’s Hillside Lounge, a cozy roadside tavern located on an out-of-the-way back road in Chester.

Inside, dozens of people sat at small tables or stood around the well-worn bar in the 139-year-old building to hear The Joe Cirotti Trio, an acoustic band that performs regularly at the venue. Every month or so, the band packs the place to play what might best be described as jamgrass or jamericana — a nearly hypnotic mix of mostly original folk and bluegrass songs that feature complex instrumental passages.

The scene was no different, though, from what can be found at other venues across Northwest New Jersey and nearby Pennsylvania where the trio often plays. Over the past few years, this “well-oiled string band,” as they call themselves, has become an increasingly popular fixture in bars and coffee houses in this slice of the region.

“The bar business is tough; you want people to show up and they always do a pretty good draw,” says Eric Wallace, whose grandfather opened Bernie’s 60 years ago. “The musicianship is just top of the line. They’re one of the best acts around. Their originals are really good. People aren’t talking (while the band plays). They come to hear them and sing along. That’s how familiar they are with their music.”

Led by Cirotti on guitar, with Pete Lister on stand-up bass and Timmy Coyle on mandolin, the band is a transcendental listening experience that harks back to the early 1970s. They take the stage with a low-key entrance, say a quick hello and, within minutes, the audience appears as if it is on a sky-bound trip. Heads are nodding up and down; bodies are gently swaying.

The scene repeats itself wherever the band plays. At a recent gig at The Pattenburg House in Asbury, they quietly launched into their usual take on Americana while exuding a Grateful Dead-like vibe. They performed several crowd-pleasers — including “Cool Hand Luke” and “Whiskey River Tide,” both of which are original numbers. But then they threw a head-spinning curveball by playing a soaring, original bluegrass-style arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” Incongruous as it may seem, the gambit fit right in with the rest of their set.

“They have an extensive repertoire, and their arrangements are interesting and unique,” says Pat Collins, an attorney in Mendham who has seen the trio more than 100 times. “But it’s hard to categorize them because they draw on so many different genres. They just don’t fit any conventional definition. And seeing them is a little bit like going to see The Dead in that you never know what you’re going to hear. Even if they play the same song you heard last time, the arrangement can be different.”

The Joe Cirotti Trio (from left, Tommy Coyle, Pete Lister and Cirotti).

The focal point of the trio is Cirotti, a lanky and circumspect Hackettstown native who has been kicking around the New Jersey music scene for more than two decades. He became fascinated with the guitar as a child, listening to his parents, both of whom played instruments — although not professionally — and turned him on to a wide variety of influences. Growing up, he heard records by Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and David Gilmour but also Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Chet Atkins, among countless others.

Like many teens, he gravitated toward hard rock and eventually played in bands. But he did so at a time when the music industry was convulsing, thanks to social media and nascent streaming, which posed both opportunities and challenges for youngsters looking for a break. For Cirotti, it proved to be a crossroads.

“I was 23 or 24 and we were still pumping money into making CDs and press kits and sending them to labels, but nobody knew where it was all going,” he says. “Eventually, our band broke up. I got tired of the loud drum cymbals crashing into my ears. I still liked it but didn’t want to play it. It wasn’t fun anymore, but I didn’t know how to move forward.”

He supported himself mostly as a house painter but eventually turned to what he calls roots music. He spent as much time as possible practicing guitar, learning new styles of music and trying to write his own songs. He veered between bluegrass and singer-songwriter folk music and later became enamored of gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt. He also released a couple of solo albums.

About a dozen years ago, he fell in with Lister and Mike Alexander (a mandolin and banjo player later replaced by Coyle), who were on a similar path, and they formed a band. Given that Cirotti did most of the songwriting and singing, they decided his name should be front and center. But finding work was not easy.

“We didn’t have any semblance of a following,” Cirotti says. “And when you play a place with the instruments we play, the crowd either likes you or hates you. But it’s the kind of music that thrives in a quieter setting. It becomes like a listening room.”

The cover of The Joe Cirotti Trio’s self-titled 2023 album.

Gradually, the band developed a loyal audience, released its own album, and broadened its reach by crossing state lines to play venues such as The Ice House in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Maureen’s Jazz Cellar in Nyack, New York. The opportunities reflect not only the ongoing embrace of Americana music but the dedicated approach the trio takes to conveying its musical ideas.

“We’re not a Yonder Mountain String Band,” Lister explains. “We’re more introspective. We’ll do some very soft- and subtle-type stuff and then do mid-paced Americana and then blues. It’s really a collage of things. We like to pass the solos around, change the rhythmic feels, like going from slow to double time.”

Indeed, all three are virtuosos who easily pivot between straightforward arrangements and inventive solos that can make their shows resemble jazz gigs as much as an acoustic Americana performance.

What also makes the band compelling, though, is the original repertoire. A heart-swelling example is “Second-Hand Shoes” (listen below), an ode to a working-class couple. Singing a memorable melody, the song’s narrator laments that “she deserves brand new, but I just don’t make enough in a day. She wears second-hand shoes, but she gives me all her love anyway.”

Then there is “All Thanks to You,” a wistful ballad that features a fingerpicking workout and a catchy, relatable chorus about escaping the past. The number is one of many that showcase an ability to lull an audience into a mellow groove and then switch gears as if an intense joyride suddenly began.

Their sets also sometimes feature earlier Cirotti solo songs such as “Destination Nowhere,” which is about yearning for a future out of reach, and “Every Time I Rise,” which describes the love that only a dog can provide.

To keep things still fresher, though, the trio also enjoys keeping the audience guessing. More than once, the band has done an entire Pink Floyd album: Wish You Were Here or Animals. You may also hear, at a gig, a unique bluegrass version of Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” (listen below) or Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher.”

“We like to turn songs into bluegrass or add a bluegrass section — make it a bit of a crossover,” says Lister. “There are plenty of songs we’ve tried that don’t work. But for some (songs), there’s a lot of humor. You know, ‘Let’s do a song that nobody would see coming.’ It’s not only for their amusement. It’s for our amusement.”

The Joe Cirotti Trio (from left, Tommy Coyle, Pete Lister and Cirotti)

Such flourishes mix easily with a professionalism that is quickly gaining notice. Last month, the trio co-headlined a bill at The Avenel Performing Arts Center, which has a decidedly different type of atmosphere for a band that spends so much of its time playing bars and taverns.

“Every once in a while, we have a really good burgeoning artist that we’re confident can fill the space, and their name was popping up quite a bit,” says Craig Cirinelli, who books music for several venues, including the Boonton Coffee Co., where the trio recently played to a sold-out crowd. “That’s because they’ve been commanding quite an audience. They’re drawing well. And Cirotti is very demure. He keeps it very chill.”

Beneath his reserved demeanor, Cirotti is quite driven. He is proud to say that for the past nine years, he has been able to make a living by playing music full-time, including side projects. The goal now is to build on what the band has achieved, although he admits that balancing responsibilities — he has two small children — can be a juggling act.

“I don’t have delusions of grandeur,” he says. “I don’t want to tour far from home because I have a family I would miss. But I want things to be better for them. Ideally, I want to sell out small theaters around the country — play for 200 to 400 people for two or three weeks at a time. I know what I can do. I know what I’m good at and what I’m bad at.

“I want to be a small, self-contained engine that runs well, raise my family, fix my car, and have a guitar in my hand as often as possible.”

For more on the group, visit joecirottitrio.com.

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