At Blues on Broadbeach 2025, two musical forces converged: Sunpie Barnes, the Louisiana-born zydeco virtuoso and Mardi Gras Big Chief, and Dom Turner, Australia’s celebrated blues guitarist and founding member of The Backsliders. Their impromptu collaboration at a West Virginia dance hall sparked a musical kinship, leading to their Australian debut together on the Gold Coast.Their synergy on stage is palpable, blending zydeco rhythms with raw blues improvisation, creating an unforgettable experience for audiences.
In this conversation, Sunpie and Dom delve into their shared history with the late blues musician Phil Wiggins, their unique musical journeys from Sunpie’s NFL past with the Kansas City Chiefs to Dom’s deep blues roots and his improvisational connection with Derek Trucks, they chat about their vision for future collaborations, and more.
How did this collaboration come about?
Sunpie: We played together at a place called Augusta Blues which is in Elkins, West Virginia and we kind of got thrown together in a band. They have bands that are created for dancers, and sight unseen we got on stage and played a two-hour dance perfectly, and then Dom invited me down to Australia. We had a mutual friend also that we both knew for many years, so we feel the spirit of Phil Wiggins brought us together.
Dom: Our mutual friend Phil Wiggins and I played here at Blues On Broadbeach in 2017 or 18, and we had done quite a number oftours in Australia, and a smaller one in America but Sunpie also knew Phil really well, and for me almost 40 years. So, we kind of feel like Phil orchestrated this because he passed away not long before this festival, Phil was the artistic director, so we feel he set up Sunpie and me.
Wow. That’s beautiful. Actually I used to watch Dom & Phil play shows all over Sydney when I was a teenager and watching the two of you perform brought Phil to mind for me also. Now, Sunpie I have a few questions for you because you have had such an intriguing life. First of all, you’re one of eleven children and I know your father was a harmonica player — did you start with harmonica?
Sunpie: I did, I started with harmonica. My father would play – he would come in out of the fields, and my earliest memories are sitting on my dad’s knee when I was maybe two and a half years old. He would play harmonica and played a little song called “Barking Like a Dog.” I was always trying to figure out where the barking was coming from. It felt like some magical thing that was happening and I was like “whatever that is I want to do that.” It was in my brain from very early, so that’s what really got me into it.
Aside from music you also were an NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1986 but decided to leave that behind to pursue music, and to become a park ranger. What inspired that decision? Why was the pull toward music so strong for you?
Sunpie: In second or third grade I thought “I’m going to do this, I don’t know what else I’m going to do in life, but these are the two main things.” Playing football was not necessarily it but I can’t say I wasn’t a good football player – and it paid for my education, so it was a good tool and vehicle for me to get to the dreams I had. I actually wrote this stuff down. I sat in front of a mirror when I was about 16 years old, and I wrote the top ten things in life I wanted to do. I also wrote down the top ten things I wanted nothing to do with as well as what I considered to be negative, things that I knew I didn’t want to be caught up with in life. They were solid goals for me, and I’ve been lucky enough to do all those things. I’ve been through the list, and I’ve gone back through it again.
I admire that so much. You’ve truly lived such a life and done so on your terms. Have you managed to stay away from everything on the “don’t do” list?
Sunpie: Yeah, I have. The decision around football was that I wanted to be playing music when I got to that age and not have lifetime injuries that I thought would slow me down if I kept on the path I was on.
That’s disciplined! As a young person to have that foresight, that what you’re doing doesn’t align with what you’ve been manifesting for your life, is inspiring. So, you play accordion, and you don’t hear that incorporated with the blues too often. What influenced you to pick it up?
Sunpie: I had a series of dreams. I had the same recurring dream five nights in a row. I was a harmonica player and in the dream I was playing accordion. It got a little annoying. But I walked into a music store in New Orleans called Werlein’s Music Store to buy a couple of harmonicas, and then the accordion that had been in my dreams the past five nights was hanging on the wall. So needless to say, I ended up buying it; I financed it, which was the first time I’d ever done something like that. I walked out with no harmonicas and one accordion and didn’t know how to play it at all.
But I stayed up all night trying to figure it out. The next day I did a Sprite commercial, the first commercial I ever auditioned for or even thought about doing. My friend invited me to it. I thought I was going to play harmonica but I ended up getting the commercial with accordion. So, I paid for the accordion the next day! Then two days later I did another national commercial in the US, so I was out of debt and I had an extra $4,000 in five days. All that was left to do was learn how to play it. But I wasn’t going to stop playing blues because that was my thing. I just started incorporating other things into it that are based on blues, and that’s how I’ve built my career around those aspects – because I grew up around blues 24/7.
That’s so wild that you had those dreams, and it all fell into place like that. Now Dom, I’m going to go over to you. You’re an Australian blues icon, you’ve been doing it for decades. What inspired a young white Aussie boy to get into the blues?
Dom: I think it probably came from the same kind of path that most people in the Baby Boomer age bracket followed. In the ’60s and ’70s, what we had access to here in Australia—aside from the occasional Australian blues album—was mainly British blues albums by the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, and all those kinds of acts, whose very first albums were versions of blues songs. As a kid, you don’t know those songs, so you’re sitting there going, “I really like this music.”
I was really attracted to the sounds of harmonica and slide guitar. And of course, back then you’d pick up the vinyl and read on the back that the lyrics weren’t written by The Rolling Stones—they were written by McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters. So you have a listen to him, and away you go—you’re set on that path.
It was a combination of hearing artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, and Lead Belly, and going out and buying their records, and then the other half was the few bands in Australia who were playing blues—Chain being one of them. They were older than me, and I got to see them and The Foreday Riders. Coincidentally, the drummer who’s been playing this festival with us—and who I’ve played with on many occasions—Roscoe Clark, was and still is in that band. I used to go see him when I was a teenager.
Seeing blues outside of America—seeing it and looking in—I just became obsessed with it. I sat at home and tried to work on the style, and it’s been a life’s work.
What brings you back to the blues time and time again?
Dom: That’s the heart of everything I do really. I listen to a lot of different music; I love a lot of everything from Vietnamese Cảilương, Thai traditional music, blues, zydeco, jazz – but all of it really for me stems back from the early ‘20s, ‘30s blues. That’s really what I love. But the other huge thing for me, and what Sunpie and I work on, is the improvisational part of blues. That’s what we lock into. During our sets we have the bones of songs, and one person will start one and the other will start another. But it’s in between that all this improvisational stuff is going on, and that’s what I lock into.
It comes from a raw place. It’s great to witness musicians connect on that level. That’s what the blues is about, and that’s what I really picked up on watching the two of you. Dom, in your career you’ve worked with a lot of great people and last year you got up on stage with Tedeschi Trucks Band during their tour. Tell us about your connection to Derek and Susan.
Dom: Playing with the Tedeschi Trucks Band was a career highlight. It was great. They have such a big following. And while I get to play at a lot of big festivals, getting to play with them at The State Theatre in Sydney, which has always been a dream of mine, was amazing. I met Derek in about 2008 at Adelaide International Guitar Festival. I was playing there with my group The Backsliders and he saw me play, which I didn’t know. The next day I went up to him to introduce myself, and he said, “I saw you last night! So, what are you doing tonight?” I said, “I’m coming to see you.” He said, “Why don’t you come and play with me?” I love his playing, and I really admire what he does so that was a great honor.
So, I met him then and we’ve been in and out of contact but last year at Bluesfest 2024 we were both playing there. I had dinner with him, Susan, and the band and the same thing happened again, he said “Oh, you’re in Sydney aren’t you? We’re playing there on Friday. Why don’t you come and play with us?” and I said, “Ok! I’m there.”
I was there and it was awesome to see. It surely would’ve introduced your playing to a few people in the audience, too.
Dom: Hopefully! And to go back to the improvisation thing, with Derek the connection that we have is that he loves the really early stuff, particularly Blind Willie Johnson. And I’m a huge fan of that, so when we were sitting backstage we were basically trading Blind Willie songs and working on that. He has a heart in improvisation, so we didn’t really have to discuss what we were going to do, we just knew we were going to play, and it was cool. I love those guys.
That’s great. Now back to the two of you, what is it that you guys hope for people to get out of your collaboration?
Sunpie: I hope people can enjoy the music but also take the spirit of what we’re creating on stage inside them and take it home with them, so they can have that experience and go back and tap into those special moments. For me being on stage with Dom and the band is an honor. I love being able to create special moments for people out front, I always try to connect with the folks right in front of me, and the ones way out in the back.
There are always a few wild ones dancing to themselves in the back, and so I want in on that party and have them know that even though they look like they’re far away, that they all feel like they’re two feet away and there’s really no stage. We’re creating a moment together. That’s the stuff I like.
You two certainly are good at that! We need an album from the two of you. There’s something special there.
Sunpie: Alright, we’re going to get on it! We definitely hope to record together soon.
