Bunny Barnes first played guitar at age 16.  By age 17, she was teaching folk and ragtime picking at Music Masters Studio in Southampton, PA.   She was performing by the age of 18 with various bands.  Though she continued to play throughout the years, performing took a back seat while she pursued her career teaching German in public school.  

In 2004, she started her solo career in clubs and restaurants in the Bucks and Montgomery County area, singing and playing popular favorites.  But in 2007, a bout with vocal cord cancer cut her singing career short.  

In 2008, with the encouragement of her teacher and mentor, world famous guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, she decided to let the guitar be her voice.   She began focusing on fingerstyle instrumental guitar music.  Today, Bunny can be found playing her own sweet, relaxing instrumental arrangements of pop, folk, rock, standards, oldies, ragtime and blues tunes at Bucks and Montgomery County area restaurants and wineries!

Bunny performed at the CAAS (Chet Atkins Appreciation Society) Convention on the Main Stage and Stage II in 2021 through 2025.  She has studied with Tommy Emmanuel since 2010 and took 5th place at the International Home of the Legends Thumbpicking Championship in the Traditional Category in 2017.  She performed at the 60th Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2022.   She has opened many times for National Thumbpicking Award Winner, Muriel Anderson!  On January 18th, 2024, she opened at Sellersville Theater for the California Guitar Trio and in 2025 was the headliner!

She plays for private parties and at various local restaurants and wineries.  She released her first instrumental album in July 2022 called "It Goes Like It Goes".  In September 2022, her CD was inducted into the National Thumbpickers' Hall of Fame as "Album of the Year"!!  You can find her playing on You Tube with the brilliant guitarists Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith, Martin Taylor, Laurence Juber, Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo.  Bunny's recordings can be heard most weeks on KGFN Radio in Goldfield, Nevada on the Carlshop Show!  
​
Bunny uses a Maton EBG-808 Artist guitar with Martin SP Lifespan strings, Fred Kelly Delrin regular thumbpicks fredkellypicks.com/artist/bunny-barnes/and a Henriksen Bud amp with David Laboga or D'Addario cables.  She also uses a Mini-Maton Diesel Special and a Peerless Martin Taylor Maestro model with Elixir strings.