Biography

Blackburn Brothers are a band of brothers in the truest sense. Led by Duane Blackburn on lead vocals, organ, and piano; Brooke Blackburn on guitar, vocals, and songwriting; and Cory Blackburn on drums and harmony vocals, their sound is rooted in family, groove, history, and the shared language of blues, soul, funk, and rhythm and blues.

The band’s extended musical family includes brother Robert Blackburn on guitar, vocal harmonies, and songwriting; cousin Nathan Blackburn on bass guitar; Neil Brathwaite on tenor saxophone; Ted Peters on trombone; and touring bassist Andrew Stewart.

Their musical lineage traces back to their father, Bobby Dean Blackburn, a pioneering R&B performer whose influence on Toronto’s music scene spans more than six decades. Beyond the music, the family history runs deep. Blackburn Brothers are fourth-generation Canadians, descended from freedom seekers who came north through the Underground Railroad and settled in Southern Ontario. Their family story also reaches to Montserrat through their grandfather Austin Blackburn.

The blues Blackburn Brothers create is part of that inheritance. Their music carries a message of history, freedom, legacy, family, Black unity, and love. Their 2023 album, SoulFunkn’BLUES, honours the trailblazers, ancestors, and communities who shaped their understanding of history, blues, soul, groove, rhythm, and life.

Blackburn Brothers have shared stages with internationally renowned artists including Mavis Staples, Dr. John and The Nite Trippers, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Cedric Burnside, as well as celebrated Canadian artists including Sarah McLachlan, Colin James, and The Bros. Landreth. They have performed at major blues, jazz, folk, and roots festivals across Canada, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and Central America.

SoulFunkn’BLUES received international acclaim, winning the 2024 Blues Blast Music Award for Soul Blues Album of the Year and earning a 2024 JUNO Award nomination for Blues Album of the Year. The album also received three 2024 Blues Music Awards nominations, making Blackburn Brothers the first Canadian band to receive three nominations from the Blues Music Awards. In Canada, the album achieved a record-setting nine nominations at the 2024 Maple Blues Awards, including Entertainer of the Year and Electric Act of the Year.

The band has received strong national support from CBC Radio, and SoulFunkn’BLUES was named 2023 Album of the Year by JAZZ.FM91. In 2023, Blackburn Brothers were inducted into the Canada South Blues Society Hall of Fame, recognizing their contributions to Canadian blues and their role in increasing the visibility of Black artists in the Canadian music landscape.

Previous achievements include the 2017 Coup de Coeur Award from the Festival International du Blues de Tremblant, a 2016 JUNO Award nomination for Blues Album of the Year, and the 2010 Maple Blues Award for Best New Band.

With a sound rooted in resilience, family, and groove, Blackburn Brothers continue to expand what Canadian blues can be. Their music is more than performance — it is a living inheritance and a tribute to the power of storytelling through sound.

The Blackburn Brothers are 4th-generation Canadians. Descendants of Elias Earls, an enslaved man born in Kentucky in 1792, who escaped slave owners and found freedom after travelling north through the Underground Railroad and settling in Southern Ontario. 

Blues historians tell us that the Blues are from, and belong to, the African American tapestry that covers America... but what happened to the music that travelled North? Carried in the hearts and minds of those who escaped or migrated to Canada in search of freedom, acceptance, or just a better life? I believe there is a gap within the history of the Blues. 

There is a forgotten tribe who may not have arrived with much after their long journey North but undoubtedly carried with them a strong sense of culture, history and especially music. 

The Blues that the Blackburn Brothers create is part of their inheritance, a legacy that began with Elias Earls. It is authentic and always about a message of history, freedom, legacy, family, black unity and love. Listen to their music, and you will move to the heavy, riff-filled soul, Blues, funky dance-able Blues, and deep groove-based Blues. Listen to the lyrics, and you will hear the stories of Black Canadians, whose northern lives may have altered the sound of the Blues but never the intent: to live life fully and connected to others through shared experience.

SoulFunkn'Blues is a tribute to all the trailblazers, all of the ancestors and forgotten tribes who taught the Blackburn Brothers the importance of history, blues, soul, groove, rhythm and life. It is a tribute to 230 years of Canadian Roots and Blues.

~ Shakura S'Aida, Liner Notes, SoulFunkn'BLUES