ENDICOTT, N.Y. — From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Broome County, two men have been coming together to help lift spirits: Nino Samiani and Mark Blackwell.

"It's something that we enjoy doing, but we get more pleasure out of just people tapping their feet, singing the song along with us," said Samiani.

"We've always got together and always seemed to harmonize together and we figured what the heck, it gives us something to do," said Blackwell. "It keeps us busy. It keeps the music going and it's something we really love."

The two men have now been playing together for a decade and it really all started as an accident.

They met at their friend Fred's bar one night and realized they had something special.

From that night, they formed a band, called "Friday at Fred's."

"We were playing and just messing around, he chimed in and everything kind of clicked and people that were there said 'you guys sound really good, you ought to do this professionally,'" said Samiani.

In the state of the world today, Samiani and Blackwell haven't been able to take many bookings.

But from the start of the pandemic, the two men have come together at least once a week, putting on free concerts for the community, either on front porches, or in this case, in Samiani's mother's backyard.

"That's all we want to do. We don't care about the money, we don't care about any of that stuff. We just want to bring joy to people who are having a tough time right now," said Blackwell.

Their talents allow them to sing in both English and Italian. But these are much more than concerts. Samiani and Blackwell were collecting money for Mercy House of the Southern Tier. In just two hours they raised more than $1,200.

"We were kind of brought up that way. Use your talents, give back to the community with the talents you have and apparently people here think we have a talent so we decided why not?" Samiani said.

If you can't catch a "Friday at Fred's" concert in-person, they also stream online and get viewers from all over the world.