Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes
- Music Nola
- Jul 18
- 1 min read
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes is a true renaissance man and is arguably the most interesting man in New Orleans music. His main role is the bandleader, accordionist, and harmonica player for the New Orleans-based Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots. The band is a fusion of zydeco, blues, Creole funk, gospel and melodies from Africa and the Caribbean.
“I had a very firm idea in my head even when I was 4 or 5 years old that I was going to make music,” Barnes told the Arkansas Times in 2014. “I thought music was magic. I’d see my father play, he used to play this old song called ‘The Coon and the Hound’ on the harmonica, he was barking like a dog and all that. He played a lot of old country blues. I was like, man, I can’t wait to get old enough to make some magic. That’s what really got me hooked on it, just sitting on his knee and listening to him play that tune.”
In addition to music, he’s a writer, a photographer, and an actor. He also spent nearly 40 years as a park ranger. And, oh by the way, he was an All-American college football player who played in the NFL.
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