Roddy Barnes is a blues and jazz pianist, composer, and consumate entertainer. Classically trained, he made the transition to blues and jazz during study in France and at the Berklee School of Music, and performed for many years in New Orleans and Austin. Now living in Virginia, Barnes has released eight of his own albums, been featured at festivals and on national radio programs, and toured internationally. Roddy's compositions have been recorded by many notable performers including Gaye Adegbalola, Andra Faye, and Ann Rabson of Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women.

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"Roddy performs every song as though it is his very last performance. He lays his soul bare...with his writing, his playing, his singing. Such honesty is rare-in music and in life."

-Gaye Adegbalola

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"He's like the Bruce Springsteen of boogie woogie...He's a man in the grips of a sensual hankering that hardly allows him a breath between the long, languid lines of his blues...He keeps stirring up desire until it builds to the emergency conditions of "Call 911", as deadly humorous a boogie as any Long-Tall You-Know-Who ever put down."

-J.D.Buhl, The New Times, Kansas City, MO

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Musical Composition

Roddy Barnes composed the theme song and segue music for the American Public Television (PBS) series "Cultivating Life." His original scores for theater include "Death of a Salesman" (Missouri Repertory Theater), "Velveteen Rabbit" (Sycamore Rouge) and "Road Kill Diner" (Cite des Arts). The Charlottesville Ballet performed an original dance to his "Nocturne for Harmonica;" Sycamore Rouge incorporated his "Better World" into their performance of "Ready for Right;" C.C. Stevens incorporated many of his songs and original skits into "The C.C.Show." Songs recorded by other artists include "Because of You" and "Let the Gin Do the Talkin'" (Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women, C. C. Stevens); "Go Where the Bad People Go" (Ann Rabson, Gina DeLuca); "Better World" (Ann Rabson); "Dreaming [A Stalker's Love Song]" (Gina DeLuca; C. C. Stevens); "Don't worry," "More Than I Can Say," and "Broken Wing" (C. C. Stevens); and "Summer Sky" (Gaye Adegbalola). Roddy Barnes has taught songwriting, vocals and piano at the Augusta Heritage Center, Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop, The Swannanoa Gathering, and Bethlehem Blast Furnace Blues Festival.  

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Download Roddy's EPK here.