Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes
Photography above provided courtesy of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes.
By Cody Berry
Way back when I was writing entries for the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, its editor Dr. Guy Lancaster, sent me an Arkansas Times article about Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes by David Ramsey. Dr. Lancaster asked if I was interested in writing an entry on Barnes and of course I said “yes.” Barnes is one of the most interesting men to ever come from Saline County. He’s a zydeco blues musician, former NFL football player, park ranger, and actor.1 Zydeco is a type of music from Southern Louisiana that combines tunes of French origin with elements of Caribbean music and American blues typically played on guitar, washboard, and accordion.2
Barnes grew up in the former Gravel Hill, now Ralph Bunche Community, in Benton. Barnes attended school in Benton where he played football, ran track, and played the trombone. Barnes learned how to play the harmonica from his father and took his nickname from an uncle who routinely visited from Louisiana. After graduating from Benton, Barnes received a football scholarship to Henderson State University, home of the Reddies. Barnes earned All-American honors on the field and majored in Biology with a focus on ichthyology (the study of fish). Barnes played for the Reddies from 1982 to 1985 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2009.3
Barnes left the Reddies to join the Kansas City Chiefs for whom he played a single season before going to play in the Canadian Football League. After that, Barnes left sports to become a park ranger with the National Park Service at the Jean Laffite National Park and Barataria Nature Preserve just outside New Orleans. In the daytime Barnes was a park ranger but, in the evenings, he played the accordion in local venues. He has appeared on television in shows, in commercials for Sprite and McDonald’s, and in popular films as well. Barnes’s full filmography can be found on imdb.com.4
Barnes’s band Sunpie and The Louisiana Sunspots formed in 1991. They are now a fixture of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival. In 1999, Barnes left the nature preserve to work at the New Orleans Jazz National Park. In 2015, he co-authored the book “Talk That Music Talk.” Barnes is also Big Chief of the Northside Skull and Bone Gang, which is one of the oldest Black Carnival groups in New Orleans.5
The Northside Skull and Bone Gang has traditions that date back to 1819. On Mardi Gras morning, Barnes and his fellow members dress in homemade skeleton like costumes before going door to door to wake up the neighborhood by knocking on doors, dancing, and chanting. This takes place in the Treme neighborhood which was one of the first neighborhoods for “free people of color,” according to Barnes in a video published by The Historic New Orleans Collection.6 Barnes’s music is a delightful mix that he calls “Afro-Louisiana,” which can be heard in songs like “Zydeco Girl” from the band’s 1997 album “Lick A Hot Skillet.”7
Citations:
1 David Ramsey, “The Life and Times of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes – zydeco superstar, naturalist, full-time park ranger, former NFL player,” Arkansas Times, June 19, 2014, https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2014/06/19/the-life-and-times-of-bruce-sunpie-barnes-mdash-zydeco-superstar-naturalist-full-time-park-ranger-former-nfl-player, Date Accessed 2/21/2025.
2 “Zydeco,” Merriam-Webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zydeco#:~:text=noun,features%20guitar%2C%20washboard%2C%20and%20accordion, Date Accessed 2/27/2025.
4David Ramsey, “The Life and Times of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes – zydeco superstar, naturalist, full-time park ranger, former NFL player,” Arkansas Times, June 19, 2014, https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2014/06/19/the-life-and-times-of-bruce-sunpie-barnes-mdash-zydeco-superstar-naturalist-full-time-park-ranger-former-nfl-player, Date Accessed 2/21/2025; Henderson State University, “Hall of Fame – Bruce Barnes,” https://hsusports.com/honors/hall-of-fame/bruce-barnes/15, Date Accessed 2/21/2025.
5 David Ramsey, “The Life and Times of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes – zydeco superstar, naturalist, full-time park ranger, former NFL player,” Arkansas Times, June 19, 2014, https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2014/06/19/the-life-and-times-of-bruce-sunpie-barnes-mdash-zydeco-superstar-naturalist-full-time-park-ranger-former-nfl-player, Date Accessed 2/21/2025. “Bruce Barnes,” https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2812502/, Date Accessed January 30, 2025.
6 “Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots,” https://www.whiteoakproductions.com/sunpie-and-the-louisiana.html, Date Accessed January 30, 2025.
7 The Historic New Orleans Collection, “The history of New Orleans’s North Side Skull and Bone Gang,” YouTube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BiyzTDVKQ, Date Accessed 2/26/2025 and “The North Side Skull and Bone Gang,” NewOrleans.com, https://www.neworleans.com/events/holidays-seasonal/mardi-gras/the-north-side-skull-bone-gang/, Date Accessed 2/26/2025.
8 David Ramsey, “The Life and Times of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes – zydeco superstar, naturalist, full-time park ranger, former NFL player,” Arkansas Times, June 19, 2014, https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2014/06/19/the-life-and-times-of-bruce-sunpie-barnes-mdash-zydeco-superstar-naturalist-full-time-park-ranger-former-nfl-player, Date Accessed 2/21/2025; Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, “Zydeco Girl,” YouTube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaj7f5hWPsg&list=OLAK5uy_nJ7XATTC4B3uLW0fBXihLpsq7NQM0i8n4&index=6, Date Accessed 2/26/2025 and album information from “Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots – Lick A Hot Skillet,” Discogs.com, https://www.discogs.com/release/14980703-Sunpie-And-The-Louisiana-Sunspots-Lick-A-Hot-Skillet, Date Accessed 2/26/2025.