Video By James R. Yetman, videos@newfoundlandtreasures.com
Eddie Coffey was born and raised in the Placentia Bay Community of Cuslett, NL. As a teenager, he heard some of the finest traditional music of the Cape Shore area and recalls people coming to their house on weekends to hear his mother play accordion. Eddie soon became part of the Cape Shore music. At 18, he went to Labrador to work in the Wabush mines for two years, playing at parties as much as he could. Eddie fished on draggers out of Halifax for around six years, playing for other draggers over the radio. In 1974 he moved to Ottawa and played with The Beggarmen for a year before moving on to Toronto. A recording executive saw him at the Horseshoe Club and that led to his first single, Sweet Forget Me Not. It outsold all other local records for that year. Four months later he recorded his first album which sold thousands and thousands, but with no share of the profits for him. For Eddie it was a bittersweet experience. Nevertheless, Coffey plays and tours across Canada several times a year in his touring motor home. His music is heard all over the world including Australia and Sweden where his song Peggy's Cove Disaster reached No. 8 on the charts. His natural and unaffected style, characteristic of his native Newfoundland grass roots, tells a stirring tale of the plane crash that occurred in 1998 in Peggy's Cove. The song is also contained on the 1999 Roto Noto release of Essentials - The 10th Anniversary World Song Compilation CD. The Eddie Coffey Band has been on tour since 2007 raising funds for the Wounded Warriors Fund, which delivers financial and moral assistance to members of the Canadian Forces wounded on military operations abroad. Eddie Coffey has been nominated for the Order of Canada, as well as for the Artistic Trailblazer Award for overall talent and outstanding contribution to the music industry.
2 окт 2024
