On the Royal Southern Brotherhood’s website, the New Orleans– and Nashville-based outfit says that, despite significant turnover in its membership, “the mission of the band has never changed.” So what, exactly, is that mission?

“The message is that music is a healing force that crosses racial, political, and gender barriers,” says singer and percussionist Cyril Neville, who’s in Louisville, Kentucky, waiting for a flight to his Big Easy home. “At our shows you can let your hair down, or take it off, while you dance and make a joyful noise with us. And our lyrics give you something to think about, while you’re shakin’ what your momma gave ya!”

As the youngest of the legendary Neville brothers, Cyril has already enjoyed a storied career: melding funk and rock with the fabled Meters, bringing atmospheric storytelling into the mix with his eponymous family band, and helping revive the New Orleans “Indian” tradition with the Wild Tchoupitoulas, the hard-partying crew led for years by his uncle, George Landry. The Brotherhood might seem a somewhat more straightforward affair—on the surface, at least. With guitarists Bart Walker and Tyrone Vaughan joining drummer Yonrico Scott, bassist Darrell Phillips, and Neville, it’s essentially a rock band—but one that brings a strong element of social consciousness to its gritty guitars and muscular rhythms.

On the quintet’s recently released fifth full-length, The Royal Gospel, Neville rips into the consumer society on “Hooked on the Plastic” and then ends the album with a plea for unity in the face of hard times with “Stand Up”. Both, he says, reflect social and musical lessons that he learned in church, from records, from friends, and most of all from his own tight-knit band of real brothers and sisters.

“Two churches come to mind: Sunlight Baptist Church on Coliseum Street in my neighbourhood and the Lastie family’s church in the lower 9th Ward,” he explains. “Allen [Toussaint, the late New Orleans soul kingpin] was and still is a huge influence on everything I do, from writing to playing and performing. Getting a chance to sing his songs at several tributes to him has helped immensely with coping with such a loss. We had become very close.…I learned harmony from my brother Aaron and my sister Athelgra, and I learned music theory from my brother Charles, but my brother Art literally dove into the Sacred Funk with me on his back. He’s the reason I’m the entertainer I am.”

Now, the 67-year-old musician adds, he’s able to impart some of those lessons to his protégés in the Royal Southern Brotherhood—but that exchange is far from a one-way street. Walker, in particular, has rejuvenated Neville’s songwriting with his own complementary take on the gospel of rock; between them they wrote half of the dozen tracks on The Royal Gospel. “I feel Bart and I have an amazing spiritual bond when it comes to songwriting,” he says. “We see the world around us similarly and express our mutual thoughts through our music.”

As for the Brotherhood as a whole, Neville couldn’t be happier with its latest incarnation. “These guys are like Red Bull for me; they give me wings!” he says. “I’m out in front much more, and that’s where I like to be.”

The Royal Southern Brotherhood plays the Burnaby Blues + Roots Festival at Deer Lake Park on Saturday (August 6).