Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes, a zydeco icon in New Orleans and across the globe, began his careers at the Buffalo National River park -- that is to say, his 30-plus years in the National Park Service, as well as building foundation for his music career.
"I would try my harmonica out on the people on the cave tours," Barnes recalls of his time as a student ranger at the Buffalo National River. "It was sort of a captured audience because they didn't know their way out. I remember playing with [people like] Grandpa Jones and Jimmy Driftwood in Mountain Home on the weekends, and I decided to have career in music just from playing around there."
FAQ
Buffalo National River
45th Birthday Bash
WHEN — 6 p.m. Sunday
WHERE — George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville
COST — $15
INFO — 527-6618 or search Buffalo River Watershed Alliance on Facebook
BONUS — Brick Fields Band will also perform.
Flash forward a few decades, and the Benton native is returning to Northwest Arkansas to celebrate and support the river on which he used to guide canoe tours every Saturday. The Buffalo River was the nation's first national river and has remained free-flowing -- undammed -- and in beautiful condition for 45 years. Barnes and his six-piece band the Louisiana Sunspots are looking forward to joining the birthday party while advocating for the river's continued protection.
The Buffalo "set a good precedent for how people need to look at nature and not let it be 'developed' by businesses," Barnes says of the park's significance. "Once you start undoing parts of nature, it's really hard to reverse. To preserve the people and places -- the culture -- of natural spaces, that's about as important as it gets."
-- Jocelyn Murphy
NAN What's Up on 03/10/2017