Noontunes: Stringer's Ridge

On a cold New Year’s Eve in 2017, three musicians met at John C. Campbell Folk School, became friends, started jamming together, and created a new trio, Stringer’s Ridge, a string band with varying and eclectic influences and a strong focus on mostly instrumental Celtic and Old Time music that could veer off into other genres at a moment’s notice.

A recent Chattanooga resident, fiddler Tom Morley has played professionally most of his life in many styles of music. Classically trained, he’s been a concert violinist, toured Europe with New Orleans jazz bands, and has a Gold Album representing his years on stage and in the studio with Country/New Traditionalist singer John Anderson. Tom’s passion for Irish Traditional Music over the past two decades led to the formation of bands that played across the country and inspired him to write a book on the subject. His wife, Fran Morley, picked up the bodhrán (the Irish drum) around the same time and has played alongside him in concerts and pub sessions in Ireland, England, Scotland, Holland, Canada, and throughout the Southeast US.

Guitarist Bryant Haynes has been painting harmonic tapestries and helping to keep the beat for a long time. A physics and chemistry teacher by day at GPS (where he’s been for two decades), he pounds out a strong, steady rhythm, both with guitar and his feet. He’s known to sing a bit, and if you’re in the audience, you may find yourself singing along, too.