Bio: Cody Blackbird

Cody Blackbird is a six-time Native American Music Award winner, Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) member, and the first ever Native American flutist to be featured in Rolling Stone magazine. Of Dakota, Cherokee, and Romani descent, Cody has spent nearly two decades touring internationally, bringing the voice of the Native flute to audiences around the world through music rooted in heritage, shaped by experience, and driven by a spirit of exploration.

As a solo artist and the lead singer and flutist of The Band Blackbird, Cody moves between traditional flute music and the band’s signature “Alter-Native Fusion,” blending Native flute with roots rock, soul, and contemporary rock and roll. Across 12 full-length albums spanning his solo and band work, he has explored new possibilities for the instrument while honoring the traditions that first inspired him.

Cody has collaborated on recordings with Portugal. The Man, worked with founding Weezer member Jason Cropper, and recorded with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jackson Browne. He has toured with Blues Traveler and shared the bill with artists including John Trudell, Jewel, the Black Eyed Peas, Redbone,  Nelly Furtado and more.. His performances have taken him from Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the Kennedy Center to Yamaha’s world headquarters in Japan and Vogue’s headquarters in New York City.

Behind those milestones is a deeply personal relationship with music. Following childhood trauma and experiences with mental health misdiagnosis, Cody immersed himself in the Native flute at age nine, finding a calming center and a means of expression. A suicide attempt survivor and advocate for mental health and suicide awareness, he speaks openly about the experiences that shaped him, weaving storytelling into performances that create space for connection, reflection, and hope.

That commitment extends beyond the stage. As Director of Musical Initiatives for the Yuchi Language Project in Tulsa, Oklahoma , Cody helps expand opportunities for Indigenous youth and community to learn, create, and record music, carrying his belief in its power into the next generation.

Blackbird 

Cody has found his calling as a musician and has had worldwide success especially with his band Blackbird as they have recently received attention and praise from pop sensation Mike Posner and the Steve Miller Band’s Kenny Lee Lewis as well as Kris Kristofferson and others.

Blending the old with the new, Cody merges the Native American flute with powerful vocals into contemporary blues rock sounds with Blackbird. The band has been compared to a hybrid Native version of the famous Blues rock band “Blues Traveler”

Featured on NBC, PBS, WGN, MSNBC, CNN and The NY Times, Cody has performed over 1500 shows both nationally and internationally. Blackbird has shared the bill with such artists as Arlo Guthrie, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Rickey Medlocke, Buffy St Marie Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow, Nahko Bear, Xavier Rudd, and Reggae legends “Big Mountain”

Blackbird carries a message of finding purpose and pursuing one’s life goals in a positive manner to reflect change in one’s self and thus their community and abroad, as well as stressing the importance of keeping culture alive in music.