With the release of their debut record On the Road in December 2008, 61 North continues to grow as an up-and-coming act in the Delaware Valley music scene.  In addition to constantly evolving new music, part of the band’s mission involves engaging in community and charity based service.  October 2008 marked their first annual 61 North Benefit Concert for Spinal Cord Injury, a benefit concert developed and organized by the group to help bring funding to those with spinal cord injuries.  With this they were able to raise over $4,000 to split between two close organizations to their cause; The Magee Rehab Hospital and Adam Taliaferro Foundation.

Spinal Cord Injury is a topic which hits very close to home for the group.  In 2004, member Ryan “Gooch” Nelson was in a horrible car accident, leaving him a quadriplegic. After 6 months of rehab at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, he was able to return home, though stripped of his ability to play guitar.   About two years after the accident, Gooch's grandfather bought him an electric guitar for slide, a style foreign to him in his previous musical endeavors.  Soon after Gooch returned home, Brian LaPann, childhood friend and graduate of the University of Delaware’s music program, began to come over and play blues standards as well as original songs with Gooch to help him develop his abilities. The two began to write songs together and rework older compositions of Brian’s for slide guitar. They started to frequent coffee houses locally, playing under the name 61 North as a duo. The concept of their sound came from blues as the starting point; the heart of the music, while fusing rock, funk and jazz influences into their originally composed music. 

Bass player Bob Comfort, also a University of Delaware student, has held a strong hand in diversifying the band’s funk, jam and roots rock aspect of their sound.   Comfort and LaPann met in 2006 when Comfort’s rock trio adopted LaPann as their front man.  The group dubbed Riverside, disbanded only six months after their incubation, though the Comfort/LaPann chemistry would soon be carried into 61 North after an epic jam at the Nelson household.  Drummer Joe Bross has been instrumental in bringing the band’s more powerful and driving rhythms into form.  After getting the call to join the band in 2007, Bross dropped everything and moved from his residence at the University of North Florida to come back to South Jersey and focus on music with the group.  This quartet has found its voice as 61 North.