Ricketty Bridge – Voyager

About Ricketty Bridge
The six piece acoustic crossover band, Rickety Bridge, are well known for having a crack at anything. From celtic to country, crooning to klezmer, like babel almost anything goes. Octave mandolin, accordion, melodeon, renaissance recorders, gaita (spanish pipes), fiddle, saxophone, dumbek & double bass are just some of the instruments this warm hearted band will entertain you with.
Our latest CD ‘Voyager’ was released in 2010
There are a variety of different musical styles on the album reflecting the different styles of music played by the band. The liner notes describe the album as follows ‘Voyager is a joyful pastiche of traditional and contemporary music performed by Ricketty Bridge with haunting tenderness in Yiddish and Ladino or infectious exuberance in French, Italian and English.’
The variety of music found on the album reflects the diverse musical interests of the band members and ranges from old English fiddle tunes and Breton sailing shanties through contemporary celtic ( galway girl by Steve Earl and the Song of Indifference by Bob Geldoff) to standards of the 1930s Yiddish theatre such as Bei Mir Bist du Shein and instrumental pieces with a distinctive middle eastern groove, there is even a touch of Eurovision in the form of Volare.
The Players
Matt is the voice and guitarist with Ricketty Bridge. His roots are in Folk, Country and Rock’n’Roll, so you may find him playing bangolin and crooning in French. Matt has played with various bands and as a solo performer. Matt’s easy going style and unique interpretation puts him at the heart of Ricketty Bridge.
Henriette Lisieux – vocals and percussion – Singing in Ladino, Hebrew and her native French and Yiddish, Henriette evokes the exuberant traditions of european folk, latin, middle-eastern, gypsy, and klezmer.
David plays a variety of wind instruments, English melodeon and piano accordion. He has been playing traditional old English melodies on recorders for more than 12 years. A desire to play a broader range of music (and to play an instrument he doesn’t have to blow into!) has lead to that pleasantly frustrating instrument, the melodeon.
Martin Hungerford Martin believes that the tin whistle is a gateway instrument, leading to harder stuff. He should know! So far it has lead him to pipes, gaita, melodeon, mandolin and saxophone. He hasn’t yet summoned the courage to tell the band he is also leaning clarinet, but he’s sure they’ll find out soon. After all, its difficult for this retired juggler to keep quiet for long..
These days, Henry just sticks to violin – sometimes masquerading as fiddle (Irish, American and Gypsy styles). In previous musical incarnations, Henry was a free jazz improviser, an orchestral and chamber musician, a country and western scratcher and a punk rocker. Occasionally the old personalities drop by…
Sam is the youngest member and his double bass playing has brought our sound together in ways we could not have imagined.
Influences:
Folk music brought us together but we soon found lots of other flavours, spices and stories bubbling underneath. We let our voices and fingers follow our hearts and now we are world travellers.