Craftsman Makes Furniture Sing in 'Ragtown'

"Good with his hands” is one way to describe Alan Bradbury.

After all, the owner of Alan Bradbury Woodworking, at 175 Narragansett Ave., where he repairs and refinishes furniture of all kinds, is also a talented musician.

Bradbury's shop is located in the part of West Barrington once known as "Ragtown" -- a lively neighborhood in the 1920s with bands and dancing, particularly during the summer season when vacationers from Pawtucket would arrive by the trainload.

"Ragtown" got its name from the former textile mills that were located there near the train tracks. It's a fitting locale for a man who possesses enough musical talent to play music from Ragtime to Cajun to Classical.

Bradbury grew up in Pennsylvania, then discovered the charm of Rhode Island when he attended RISD in the early 1970s. After graduating with a degree in landscape architecture in 1972, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he found work doing furniture repairs.

“I went to work for the proverbial little old man in Pennsylvania,” said Bradbury. When the 'little old man' died a couple of years later, Bradbury decided it was time to head back to Rhode Island.

“I'd gone to school in Rhode Island, and I just loved the place,” he said.

His old college housemate was living in Barrington and, for two years, Bradbury lived and worked out of a house on Middle Highway.

In 1977, he moved to Bristol for several years, before moving his residence to Warren in 1981, and then his workshop to the same town a couple of years later.

In 1990, Bradbury attended a week-long Cajun music study camp in West Virginia. While playing the accordion, he met a beautiful fiddle player from Chicago named Michelle Kaminsky.

Bradbury said the two “immediately clicked,” and they were married in 1992.

Two years after they married, the couple moved to Barrington, where Bradbury continued working on furniture while making sweet music with his new wife, who is a musician and teacher, and works with the R.I. Fiddle Project.

In addition to accordion, Bradbury plays piano, bagpipes, and string bass. He actually went to Boston in 1996 to study piano, taking time off from his woodworking business to do so.

When returning to work, Bradbury added piano tuning to his list of skills, spending a third of his time working on pianos, which ended up causing damage to his hand.

In 2000, he bought the building on Narragansett Avenue, and refocused on his furniture business, saving his hand for the enjoyment of playing music for himself and friends, which includes playing string bass for contra dances these days.

When visiting his studio, it's obvious that Bradbury is a meticulous craftsman. One of his current projects is the Bishop's throne from The Church Of The Advent, located on Beacon Hill in Boston. The upper wooden part of the throne was listing forward and threatening life and limb, so the church entrusted Bradbury to dismantle the throne, make any needed repairs, and reassemble it.

“It can be a little hair-raising working on a project like that, because it means an awful lot to somebody,” said Bradbury.

But the challenge and satisfaction of any job he takes on brings its own rewards, according to Bradbury, who delights in the feel and look of different woods, and the joy of returning a piece to a client who is then able to use that loved furniture item for decades to come.

Bradbury said he knows that at some point in the next decade, the physical challenge of working on heavy furniture pieces will become a consideration. But should retirement from his furniture business ever become a reality, he plans to enjoy his new Providence home -- the couple moved there two years ago -- and continue making music.

“I don't ever see myself retiring retiring,” said Bradbury. “It's not in my nature to move to Florida."