For Kenneth Kinsey, separating music and family has always been difficult — and that’s just the way he likes it.

Kenneth and his brothers Donald and Ralph are the three founding members of the Gary, Ind.,-based blues outfit the Kinsey Report. Besides their connection as brothers in their current band, the family ties run much deeper for this family, as they are the sons of the late blues legend Big Daddy Kinsey.

“On the weekends, my dad always had what you might call a ‘house party,’ and the local musicians would come by and jam if they weren’t out working in the clubs that night,” Kenneth says. “It was a revolving door of musicians at our house.”

Kenneth says music was more than just a casual pastime while he was growing up. It was a way of life that had been handed down for generations.

“My dad’s musical influences came from his parents, and my grandparents came out of the church. My grandfather was a Pentecostal minister, and Pentecostal churches are filled with music,” Kenneth says. “That’s how [my dad] got his influence at a young age, and when the ‘blues bug,’ as he liked to say, hit him, he was determined to have his kids get involved with music when he had a family.”

Because of a 10-year age difference between him and his next-oldest sibling, Kenneth says that he was surrounded by music long before he was even old enough to join in.

“My dad put instruments in their hands when they were, like, 8 or 9 years old, and they were playing professionally since they were about 12 or 13,” Kenneth says. “He introduced music to them at a very young age, and when I was born, the house was already completely filled with music.”

Kenneth might have had a late start, but he wasted no time in catching up.

After his brothers’ successes playing with such acts as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, the three joined forces to form The Kinsey Report in 1984. While their sound is fringed with reggae and funk, the blues influence handed down to them from their father still shines through in every song.

“We try to take what’s in our environment and put it into our music — not only lyrically, but musically as well,” Kenneth says. “We just make sure that blues is our foundation to everything that we try to do, and then we add all of the other little branches, whether it’s a little touch of reggae or a little touch of funk. If it feels good, then we try to do it.”

This commitment to both their beginnings and to their evolution as musicians has made the Kinsey Report one of the more noticeable blues acts of the last two decades.

Unfortunately, this musical family has also seen its share of hard times, especially since the death of their father from prostate cancer in April 2001.

“Our last album was released at the end of 1998, beginning of 1999, and that’s when my dad got sick. We had put together a first round of songs at that time [for a new album], but when he got sick, that really just threw things off,” Kenneth says.

“My mom had passed away already — she passed in 1995 — so it was just us boys to take care of our dad. We’re really just now beginning to settle down from everything.”

Kenneth says the loss of his father was incredibly difficult on both a personal and a professional level.

“My dad was such an influence on us, as a father and as a business leader,” Kenneth says. “It takes a little time to regroup and rethink how things are going to be ran from now on.”

Despite the emotional difficulties and setbacks that the group has faced, Kinsey says the band is excited to return to the Maintenance Shop for the first time in several years, and hopes that the music can influence the audience in the same way that his own father influenced him.

“The M-Shop has always had great audiences — we’ve always had a good turnout,” Kenneth says.

“That’s one thing about playing at colleges. You’re turning your music on to young fans, who will hopefully carry your music on for the rest of their lives.”