Musical expression grew out of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes’ early immersion in the blues tradition carried on by his father and the community around him. “Blues is central of all my music,” he declares. “The music I write, perform, and record comes to me in dreams. It was my grandmother who explained this direct way of receiving information to me.”
Sunpie also credits his grandmother, Louvina Norris, for putting him in direct touch with the spiritual and practical lore of his ancestry. He says she showed him plants in nature that heal and prepared him to understand direct ways of knowing that have served him well in his original music, his schooling, and in his encounters with elders in his travels throughout the African Diaspora.
Albums available of Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots include: “Loupe Garou”, “Lick a Hot Skillet,” “Sunpie,” “Legends of the Swamp,” and his new release “Zydeco’s Got Soul.” While they may on the surface seem diverse and unconnected, all evoke the music of the African motherland and African music traditions which are alive in the Caribbean as well as here in Louisiana.
