Bunwinkies has been played on NTS in shows including The Cosmic Principle w/ Nick Mitchell Maiato, featured first on 24 September 2017. Songs played include Fretful And Lost.

Based in Western Massachusetts. 5 piece folk/pop/psyche outfit. Formed in 2004 (?) in Northampton, Massachusetts. The lineup changed within the first 2 years - see below. Playing again after a year long hiatus.

Original members: Shannon & Beverly Ketch, Jim Bliss, Sita Magnuson, Brian Akey, Elizabeth MacDuffie.

Round 2 members: Shannon & Beverly Ketch, Jim Bliss, Sita Magnuson, Christopher Caromdy, Dan Mcleod, Desi Lowit, Mark Hanson

Current members: Shannon & Beverly Ketch, Jim Bliss, Sita Magnuson, Mark Hanson

Members have also played in the following groups: Jow Jow the Death Knell Rung, Adolf Dove, Supreme Dicks, Black Medic, Evil Bill, the Proses, Trials & Tribulations (occasionally), Jim & Sita and numerous side projects

Behind the Beat: Nature Sounds Psych-folk songsmiths the Bunwinkies let the good times roll. Tuesday, June 30, 2009 By Matthew Dube

"The Bunwinkies are characters from a Victorian children's story," says Shannon Ketch, explaining the origin of his band's moniker. "They are a family of rabbits who see the flaws in human ways and decide to keep to their own natural ways. They demonstrate the good times beyond worldly possessions."

The musical Bunwinkies—Shannon on vocals, guitar and keys; his wife Beverly Ketch on vocals and rababa; Sita Magnuson on ukulele, guitar, cello and vocals; Jim Bliss on guitar, bass, and vocals; Mark Hanson on drums and backing vocals; and Christopher Carmody on various stringed instruments and "elongated mind harp"—resemble closely those Victorian rabbits, collectively celebrating more earthy, organic sounds, with a definite predilection for living it up in the here and now.

The experimental psychedelic folk group began in the fall of 2003 during a visit by the Ketches to the living room shared by Magnuson and Bliss. "We couples met as friends a week prior," Shannon says. "The others joined later. We recorded our first song and played our first show by the end of that weekend and called ourselves Bunwinkies soon thereafter."

The band members, who self-deprecatingly refer to themselves as "true amateurs," pile on layers of ethereal vocals and swirling, predominantly acoustic instrumentation. They create trippy, meandering folk rock in the proud tradition of ensembles like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and, to use a more recent and local touchstone, the short-lived but much-loved Feathers. Bunwinkies employ multiple songwriters, much as those groups did.

"Typically one person, or one couple, will have an idea that they forward on in an email or share in person," Shannon says. "Either together or apart, we let the sense of the song sink in—is it melancholy, strident, musing?—and we begin to play with sounds and lyrics that support the original intent. The songs either take months of tinkering to develop or they are born instantly out of a jam and don't change much thereafter. The songs are either intentional or accidental. When we like a tune, a song or a notion, we explore it, add to it, subtract from it or let it exist in its original form."

Shannon summarizes the collective's working philosophy: "If there is an ethos for the band, it may be allowing the songs of the true self to grow forth uncivilized, rather than to construct songs with notions of what people would like to hear. I don't think virtuosity has a place in folk music. It should be created with ingredients that are possessed by everyone. Also, fine beer and fine wine equals a good time."

Bunwinkies extend those good times to anywhere they might be, gathering whenever they are able in kitchens, living rooms and on porches to practice, record and perform their music. Although they cite a "living room-like setting" as their ultimate live space, they are no strangers to area stages. They are also one of the major forces behind the Wickermania Festival, an annual local music event.

"Wickermania is in its fifth year," says Shannon. "It happens in association with Autonomous Battleship Collective and Anonymous Loners. For the last two years it's been held on our land in Goshen during late summer. Typically, it's held over the course of a weekend and incorporates a wide variety of musical stylings. Last year we had about 20 acts, including the likes of Kurt Weisman, Visitations, Big Blood, MV&EE, and a stripped-down Sunburned Hand of the Man."

Bunwinkies have produced three self-released CDRs—Bun, A Bunkie's Carnival and a self-titled compilation—that they have circulated hand-to-hand, mostly among friends. They also recorded a haunting take on Neil Young's "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)" for an independently released tribute album. True to form, the song unfolds organically, a living and breathing entity, moving and growing under its own natural power.

Bunwinkies' future goals are simple, according to Shannon: "Playing some shows, recording some things, and living among the bird and the bee and the fig and nut tree."