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Barnstorm event poster with biplane

Barnstorm Welcomes Dr. Francis Collins

by | Feb 1, 2026 | , , ,

There are 27 different institutes at the National Institutes of Health, and workers at every one of them have been impacted by the chaos of the current administration. Since the beginning of last year, roughly 10% of NIH’s workforce has been terminated without notice, encouraged to retire, or fired over email. Some former NIH workers created a group called 27 UNIHTED to support one another and advocate for a better future for biomedical research.

My folk band, Barnstorm, is proud to be playing a benefit show on February 15 to support 27 UNIHTED’s programs and advocacy. My bandmates are terrific: Greg Watkins on bass, Mark Carson on drums, and Michael Robert Taylor on fiddle and mandolin. And I’m delighted to reveal that our opening act is none other than the folk singer Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., former director of the NIH and, before that, of the Human Genome Project. Since his retirement from NIH last March, Collins has devoted himself to his music. The week after our show, he’ll be performing at the Lincoln Center in New York with soprano Renée Fleming!

The benefit show will take place at The Alley at Bethesda Boards, 7900 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, February 15. It’s a BYOB situation and also BYOF (bring your own food). Tickets will be $40, with proceeds going to 27 UNIHTED, but laid-off federal workers are invited to come for free. It’s an early show: Doors open at 5pm and the music starts at 6pm. Hope to see you there!

Fluffy white clouds with blue sky peeking through behind

New Choral Work Premieres in Florida

by | Jan 15, 2026 | , , ,

I was recently commissioned to write a setting of Psalm 19 for the choir of Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church on Sanibel Island in Florida. Of course, being the profound agnostic that I am, I had to look up the psalm. It’s the one that starts “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be traveling to Florida for the piece’s premiere. And I’m taking my guitar, because while I’m down there, I’ll play a sing-along concert from the Barnstorm songbook, accompanied by local accordionist Tom Cinarusci percussionist Doreen Bolhuis.

If you’re in the area, please come to the church (2304 Periwinkle Way) to hear the psalm piece during the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, January 31. Or come for a Barnstorm-lite show at 1:30pm the same place, same day. There’s no charge for either event.

Barnstorm’s First Gig

Barnstorm’s First Gig

by | Oct 14, 2025 | , ,

I used to be a musician who played out a lot, but for the past five years, I’ve been concentrating on writing plays and musicals. Lately, though, I have felt an itch to perform again. But in what way? Most people who have followed my performing career would think of me as a jazz pianist, but my artistic roots are actually in Appalachian folk music, and that’s what my mind kept coming back to. The five-string banjo was the first instrument I played for audiences.

I finally got up the nerve to invite a few very good musicians to get together and play some folk songs — pieces that are structurally simple, but emotionally complex. I’m flattered that guys as talented as bassist Greg Watkins, percussionist Mark Carson, and fiddler Michael Robert Taylor have agreed to form a band with me and join me on this sentimental journey. We’re called Barnstorm, and our first gig is Monday, November 3rd at 7 pm at The Alley at Bethesda Boards, a new bring-your-own-food-and-drink venue located inside a skateboard shop at 7900 Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda.

Our good friend Dave Ries will be opening the show. Admission is $20 for those whose incomes have not been affected by the recent federal craziness and $0 for those whose incomes have been affected. (No proof of income is required, just let us know at the door.)

Promo for The Fireman's Carnival

National String Symphonia Plays The Fireman’s Carnival

by | Oct 1, 2025 | , ,

I’m pleased to let you know that the National String Symphonia, helmed by music director David Fanning, will be performing my piece The Fireman’s Carnival next month. This five-movement work for strings and clarinet is based on a treasured childhood memory of mine: the one weekend every summer when the volunteer fire department in my tiny Pennsylvania town would host a traveling carnival as a fundraiser.

The carnival would arrive and get set up in one night. It seemed to appear magically, like a mushroom after rain. The rides were small and probably dangerous. They were run by strange men in greasy clothing whose attention to safety was questionable. The carnival only ran at night. My four sisters and I were able to ride our bicycles to it. And riding home at the impossibly late hour of 10 pm was something of a dream.

The program will be performed at several Maryland venues, in Wheaton on November 2; in Frederick on November 8; and in Ellicott City on November 9. For more information or for tickets, visit the orchestra’s webpage, nssorchestra.org.

Three musicians in a home music studio that features a grand piano and built-in bookcases in the background.

Poetry in Music

by | Jun 14, 2025 | , ,

My good friend Greg Watkins, an extraordinary bassist, recently hosted a virtual children’s concert in my home studio. Greg works as the principal bassist for the American Pops Orchestra, and he also coordinates some of their events. In this case, Greg and the APO had solicited poems from students all over the country and selected some of the best to be read by the gifted singer and actor Alan Naylor, while Greg and I improvised a musical accompaniment on bass and piano. Students and their teachers logged on to stream the performance. It was such a joy to simply “create” on the spot with two such talented artists, and to spotlight the work of the next generation of creators.

Artwork by Charlie Barnett, featuring the neck of an old banjo against a painted background featuring a tree that has dropped its leaves. The predominant colors are blue and brown.

A Personal Folk Revival

by | May 14, 2025 | , ,

Last month, I was the bandleader, pianist, and singer in a show in Rochester, New York. It was a birthday concert, and the birthday “boy” was turning 90. The set list consisted of his favorite songs from folk and traditional artists, including Harry Belafonte, Leadbelly, and Odetta. For me, it was a return to my musical roots; I may have spent decades as a jazz performer, but old-time Appalachian music is in my heart, and five-string banjo is the first instrument I could play well. This concert gave me a surprising idea of what my future in performing might hold. As I say to my banjo when I put it back in it back in its case: “Stay tuned.”

logo from The Last Days of Cleopatra musical. Features Liz Taylor in her Cleopatra costume with beaded braids and an Egyptian statue wearing mod 1960s teal sunglasses

Cleopatra staged reading in Manhattan

by | Jan 1, 2024 | , ,

On December 14, a longtime dream of mine came true. After a few tries and cul-de-sacs, I finally got to hear my Liz-and-Dick musical, The Last Days of Cleopatra, as I had first envisioned it many years ago. Thanks to executive producers Dick Kaufmann and Dan Markley, a truly stellar cast of Broadway performers—brilliantly led by director Tom Caruso and music director Matt Smedal—gathered to perform a full staged reading of this wacky period farce on Theatre Row in New York. It remains to be seen where, if anywhere, the show goes from here, but to my mind, the reading could not have gone better. I’m so grateful to everyone who made it part of their December.

When We Get There at the York Theatre in NYC

When We Get There at the York Theatre in NYC

by | Nov 18, 2023 | , ,

In October, a reading of our Civil Rights show When We Get There was produced as part of the York Theatre’s Musicals in Mufti series on New York’s Upper East Side. The theater even made a promo video for the run, complete with audience member reactions that truly warmed my heart. Along with my creative partners in the show, co-librettists Richard Lasser and Robert P. Young III, I was honored to work with director Janeece Freeman Clark, music director Dionne McClain-Freeney, and an amazing and talented cast of performers. Watching Janeece and Dionne mold this show was like seeing a master potter turn simple clay into a beautiful vase. I’m pleased to report that there is some interest in taking this to the next level. Stay tuned!

Give Me the Orchestra Returns

Give Me the Orchestra Returns

by | Oct 18, 2023 | , ,

Once again this fall, my wonderful home of Montgomery County, Maryland, sponsored an orchestral concert for every single second grader in the county. It amounts to thousands of kids, many of whom are experiencing live orchestral music for the first time. I was honored to have my composition Second Grade, Second Line aka Give Me the Orchestra included in the program. It’s a participatory piece with a New Orleans groove that introduces children to the orchestra’s various sections. There’s nothing quite like hearing 2,200 eight-year-olds screaming, “Give me the strings!”

Promotional poster for The Spectre of Death play in Allentown Sept-Oct 2023

Spectre in Allentown: ‘Wry, glib,’ ‘humorously quirky’

by | Oct 3, 2023 | , ,

The first run of The Spectre of Death, my heavy-metal comedy, is in the books, and the critics liked it! Here’s the Lehigh Valley Press:

“Barnett writes wryly, glibly and humorously about the foibles of fame and its often corrosive effects on the psyche. Barnett’s often laugh-out-loud funny play is a bit of a cautionary tale, and not only for aspiring, or expiring, old rockers.”

And the Lehigh Valley Stage:

“An original comedy that is humorously quirky with unexpected twists.”

I got to see two performances and was proud and honored by what the Crowded Kitchen Players were able to do with this play.

 

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