This weekend (June 8-9), the 2013 Cajun Zydeco Festival takes place on the grounds of the Old U.S. Mint, and in this week’s edition of OffBeat’s Look-Ka Py Py Podcast, perennial fest favorite Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes tells us about his new album as well as what he’s got in store for his set on Sunday afternoon. Though a familiar face around town and on tour, Island Man marks Barnes’ first official release since 2005’s Zydeco’s Got Soul. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Barnes recorded the album Spiritland only to shelve it because his spirit told him that the time wasn’t right for its release.

For Barnes, his spirit has been the guiding force behind his career as a Zydeco musician. Decades earlier, Barnes, then a harmonica player enamored with the music of the great Clifton Chenier, hadn’t considered picking up an accordion until, in a dream, he saw himself brandishing one. As fate would have it, days later while shopping for a new harmonica, an accordion hanging on the music store’s wall caught his eye. It was the one from his dream. Taking the sight as a sign, Barnes, then short on cash, financed the instrument’s purchase only to land a spot in a commercial shortly thereafter which covered the debt.

In a similar twist of fate, while recording Island Man, Barnes, a devoted member of the North Side Skull and Bones Gang, was compelled to record the age-old songs his crew sings when waking the spirits of the city on Mardi Gras morning. To Barnes, it’s a mix of “excitement, pageantry and fear,” but he isn’t worried about how audiences will respond — He’s got a good feeling. Tune in below to hear his story…

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