From a very young age, Blackbird was fascinated by the creation of sound, the ability to take an item and make music from it, whether it be bowls and pans in the kitchen or his fathers drums and guitar, Cody fell in love with music. At the age of 9 he decided he wanted to learn to play the flute, having listened to it much of his life through CD's, family friends and relatives it sparked Cody’s interest. His first flute was a High Spirits Raven flute in the key of F#. As his knowledge of the flute and how to play it grew so did his collection at the age of 18 when he recorded his first CD his collection was at around 35 flutes. After recording his first Internationally released album “Raven Speaks” Cody started to receive attention from many in the music scene landing him his first even nomination at the Native American Music Awards in the category of “Best Debut Artist” a dream come true for a young man who had always inspired to take his music to a professional level, although he did not take home the award it was an honor and a life changing experience for Blackbird. The following year he released “The Journey” this is the album that made Blackbird the youngest in the history of Native American Music to win the “Flutist of the Year” award at the 2011 Native American music Awards. So with three years of recording and over 200 national and international shows under his belt Blackbird went on to collaborate with Rosebud Sioux rapper and motivational speaker Frank Waln to record Blackbird’s first solo flute album entitled “Wicohan” an album dedicated to cultural survival and awareness though language and music, while in the studio working on that project they collaborated on the Hit song “Hear my Cry” a Hip Hop song merging the cultures together by combining Waln's production talent and flow and Blackbird's Flute and traditional singing, this song went on to receive international attention and radio play as well as well as a nomination at the ISMA Awards and the win for Song of the Year at the 14th Annual NAMA’s in Niagara Falls New York.

 

Aside from his music Cody also works with youth and college students on a variety of issues including youth empowerment and healing through music. Cody is the Founder of the Cody Blackbird Scholarship Fund a once a year 2000-dollar scholarship available to any indigenous youth who wishes to achieve the goal of higher education. Blackbird is also the founder of the Music Is Life Foundation an organization aimed at putting musical instruments and materials into rural area schools that couldn’t otherwise afford them.

Blackbird has also stood up and used his voice on a variety of humanitarian issues such as clean water rights, sacred sights awareness, and mining issues across the country including mountain top removal for coal mining and uranium mining in the Black Hills.

From a young boy who chose a path of music for his own wellbeing and sanity to a young man who has been classified by many piers in the industry as Undoubtedly one of the top Native American Flutist of our time it has been a journey of a lifetime and it just keeps getting bigger and better...
Cody has now formed his band made up of a handful of true industry players called the Cody Blackbird Band; they are soon to release their first album and sure to be coming to a venue near you very soon.