Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse is thrilled to welcome Rolly Brown and opener Bunny Barnes to the February coffeehouse on Saturday, February 17, 2024, 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7 pm.
Rolly Brown is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter living in Bucks County PA. He has been a National Guitar Fingerpicking Champion and a Philadelphia Music Award nominee. In a career spanning 50+ years, he has been a solo performer, sideman, studio musician, radio producer, and teacher, performing over much of the United States, and in Canada and Australia. He considers himself a lifelong student of the guitar and his musical passions have included folk, blues, jazz, swing, bluegrass, and original fingerstyle guitar. He is adept at both fingerpicking and flatpicking. In recent years, Rolly has focused on songwriting. He is also an acupuncturist and T’ai Chi Ch’uan instructor, and a dog lover. Rolly’s website and Facebook page.
Opening the evening will be the gifted finger stylist, Bunny Barnes. She is a guitarist whose singular talent has begun earning her national accolades and invitations to play an impressive array of prestigious events. The Chet Atkins Appreciation Society brought her to their main stage at their annual convention three years running, and in the last year she has performed at the estimable Philadelphia Folk Festival, the International Home of the Legends Thumbpicking Championship, Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference, and she has shared stages with the likes of Muriel Anderson and The California Guitar Trio.
Bunny has been playing since the age of 16, but after a career as a German language middle school educator, she began in 2004 to dedicate herself to performing in clubs and restaurants around Eastern Pennsylvania singing and playing popular favorites. In 2007, a bout with vocal cord cancer cut her singing career short and she would have abandoned music if not for an encounter with the guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel, who encouraged her to instead focus on her other instrument and let the guitar be her voice. Tommy took Bunny under his wing as a student shortly afterward, and his guidance along with her incredible perseverance and focus started gaining Bunny a wider and wider audience.
In 2017, Bunny earned 5th place at The International Home of the Legends of Thumbpicking Championship and was encouraged by her mentor and others to get into the recording studio and capture her new voice for all to hear. She released her first instrumental album, It Goes Like It Goes in 2022, and in short order the album was inducted into the National Thumbpickers’ Hall of Fame as “Album of the Year.”
You can find videos of Bunny playing with the brilliant guitarists Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith, Martin Taylor, Laurence Juber, Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo on YouTube. Songs from her latest release can be heard on most streaming services, and are available for sale directly from www.BunnyBarnes.com
February concert flyer.
The Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse is a ministry of the Perkasie Mennonite Church. The coffeehouse is warm and cozy, with lots of atmosphere. It is a place where people can enjoy fellowship and see some of the best performers available up close and personal, in an intimate setting. Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse is located in the church fellowship hall, which is air conditioned and handicap accessible.
Admission: $15 for adults; $12 for adults 65 and over; students 13 and up, $8; 12 and under free. All ticket sales at door, no advance sales, no reservations. Delicious desserts and drinks are available. The doors open at 7:00 and performances begin at 7:30.
A portion of our proceeds for the February and March concerts goes to the RamPacks program, providing kid-friendly, non-perishable food for a child’s breakfasts, lunches, and snacks during the weekend and holidays for students in the Pennridge School District.
You can also drop off donations of non-perishable food at Patchwork for Pennridge FISH (Fellowship in Serving Humanity), our local non-profit food pantry and clothing outlet here in Perkasie at all our concerts.