For the third edition of the ROCK IS RED podcast we've caught up with flute player and composer CODY BLACKBIRD (Cherokee/Dakota) whose haunting compositions and performances have earned him universal acclaim as well as a few industry accolades such as a couple of Native American Music Awards for Flutist of the Year and for for Song of the Year in 2012 for the track HEAR MY CRY with Rosebud Sioux hip hop artist FRANK WALN. In the years since that NAMMY win, BLACKBIRD has experienced disillusionment over an alleged mishandling of royalties over the song HEAR MY CRY  but  that  disillusionment has allowed BLACKBIRD to challenge himself as both a musician and an artist. His current EP release EUPHORIA - Produced by TERRANCE JAYE (Oglala Sioux hip hop producer) - takes BLACKBIRD's mesmerizing flute sounds and combines them with ambient beats and electronic textures.  His forthcoming release THIS SIDE UP is being released by his eponymous band  and is stylistically different from EUPHORIA or any of his previous releases. THIS SIDE UP introduces us to CODY BLACK BIRD - the multi-instrumentalist and singer with a message about the human condition. The first track to be made available form THIS SIDE UP is the acoustic guitar driven PROMISED LAND - a good old fashioned protest song giving a big middle finger to the KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE. 

ROCKWIRED had a chance to speak with CODY regarding these exciting new developments. Here is how the interview went.

You're about to release the album THIS SIDE UP as THE CODY BLACKBIRD BAND. Before, the world knew you as an instrumental artist and now you've gone into doing vocals and some very fine vocals I might add. So talk about this change in direction.
The band idea was something that I've wanted to do since I've started music. I've always wanted to branch out and do more. And recently I've had the opportunity to do that with THE CODY BLACKBIRD BAND. I started a little over a year and a half ago and our first concert was an anti-uranium concert in the The Black Hills. We had a great show and an awesome response from the organizers and the crowd. People wanted to hear more and see us more. We've had really great energy buzz around what we were doing. At the time we were doing mostly instrumental stuff and then people were like "CODY, you need to start writing vocals! People want to hear you sing!" So we did that. We released RECLAMATION where I just did some traditional vocals with the band but I got the sense that people still wanted written lyrics so we came up with the single PROMISED LAND just this past December. Now it's evolved to where we're getting ready to release the album in May with both instrumentals and songs with lyrics. It's a genre that we're calling Alternative Blues Rock Fusion. It's just something that's really exciting and new and fresh.

And how did you settle on these guys for this band.
I had worked with KURT before in shows with BRULE and shows with KEITH SECOLA. I've known him and he was there for the beginning at that concert in the Black Hills. He was our original drummer there. I actually knew CODY NICELY from growing up in Alaska. We grew up together as kids.

What has inspired the songs on THIS SIDE UP? Where are the songs coming from emotionally?
As an artist I'm at a point in music where I'm sick of repetitiveness. I'm sick of the same ol' same ol'. We get it! You're going to a party and you're gonna get blanked up drunk and you're gonna have a good time. We get it! I want to hear conscious music and I know that there are other listeners out there who want the same thing. They want to listen to music and be able to take away something from it. It's cool to have a party song here and there but there are so many thing s going not only in our homeland but around the world that people need to open up their eyes to and I feel that my songwriting is a way to do that. Betterment of self and community is really what its' all about. If we can't change within ourselves we're no good to society.

And do you not feel that that is what the message is with other current artists out of Indian Country?
I do. I think you have artists who are great at conveying that message to their specific fanbase but what I'm trying to do is convey that message to a broader audience and not limit myself to a certain clique. This is a message that I really want to take to the masses. Many artists have tried and succeeded on some level and then they drop off and you never hear from them again. A couple of tragic events have taken people too early and there hasn't been anyone who has exceeded at what I envision. I'm not saying that I can do it but I'm going to damn well try to get my music out there outside of the Indian Country clique.

I remember not too long after I interviewed you the first time i did see you forging a broader music when you collaborated with FRANK WALN for the song HEAR MY CRY and few months ago I noticed you posted on FACEBOOK regarding that track. I understand that there is a rift between the two of you. What is the reason for it?
Absolutely. I was recording my traditional flute album WICOHAN and FRANK was recording it and producing it. He asked me if I could help on this track that he had in mind. I said "Absolutely! I'd be glad to!" In the middle of recording my album we took a break to work on the song that was to become HEAR MY CRY. We worked on it together. He wrote his lyrics and I wrote the hook and the traditional flute and vocals. We put the song out and it did what it did. It did great things and its' still making a big impact and doing great things. The rift isn't about the song itself. It's about the legalities behind the song. It wasn't until a year ago that I looked into the U.S Copyright paper work for he song and found out that I was written out of my co-writing credit and my publishing credit. Any of my credit tot he song was not on the paperwork at all. So I started doing some investigating because the original agreement on that song was fifty/fifty credit all the way around. I've never seen a penny but it's not about the money. It's a matter of honor. You don't tell somebody something and then go behind their back and take credit for it. The paperwork makes not mention of my input whatsoever. I March of last year we went to Chicago to see a TRIBE CALLED RED and FRANK was opening. I walked over to FRANK at his merchandise table and he said "Bro you look good! It's good to see you!" and I just looked him straight in the eyes and said "This is two small of a business to have this going on. We need to squash whatever it is and move on and right this wrong." He was like "Absolutely bro! We need to fix this!" We set up a time and a place to meet. That time came. I was at the place and I was left standing there waiting for Mr. WALN. That was the last time I ever spoke to him. When it was all over I just thought about how I could take this experience and flip it into a positive and that was when me and my younger brother CALEB founded READY RECORDS which is an independent profit-sharing label that bring sin independent artists of all genres and shows them all the proper ways getting their music taken care of legally and how to promote their music. There are too many people in this industry that want to use you and we don't have the time or the capacity as artists to deal with that. This whole ordeal took a lot out of me. It took a lot of time and energy and the ability to deal withe day to day things that I needed to be dealing with all because I had to deal with something that should've been rectified with one phone call. It was a lesson learned and it's not something that I look back on and regret at all. The song is great and i think that FRANK is a great person. He made a mistake and was too embarrassed to rectify it. That is what I think it came down to and I wish him nothing but the best. The fact of the matter is I was used and I was never given the proper credit. But you pick up and move on and learn from it and hope that you can do what you can so that it doesn't happen to you again and to those around you.

And just to switch gears - what songs off of THIS SIDE UP have you the most excited and why?
We've got PROMISED LAND which is about the Keystone Pipeline and the devastation the big oil brings to the land. There is a lot of passion in that song and I'm really excited to have people hear that song more. The title track for the album THIS SIDE UP is a another good song. The album cover is pretty controversial with an upside down flag. A flag upside down means distress and people don't realize that. They think that it's a sign of disrespect. They think it's a big middle finger to the United States but in Section 36 of the United States Constitution when you feel you're life is in danger or distressed you are allowed to fly the flag upside down as a sign of that. We went through battles with many different distribution companies to get this artwork to remain as the cover for the album. The title track is about opening up your eyes to what is really going on. It doesn't matter was race color or creed that you are in this country the powers that be are affecting you. We have things that are going on over seas that people are watching right now while there is devastation going on right here in this country. Right now were' at risk of losing the largest source of fresh water in the United States and without we become a third world country over night. That's not an issue of race and if anyone says it is ask how.

CHECK OUT THE PODCAST AT:
http://www.rockwired.com/rockisred/rockisred3.mp3

CHECK OUT CODY BLACKBiRD AT:
https://www.facebook.com/thecodyblackbirdband?ref=br_tf