About
David Coffin has one of those voices that can pull a whole crowd into a sea shanty without breaking a sweat. A bass baritone based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, he specialises in traditional folk and maritime music, and serves as song leader for the Revels music programs in Cambridge. He plays concertinas, recorders, whistles, and a handful of genuinely archaic instruments like the shawm and gemshorn, giving his sound a depth you don't hear often. His 2010 YouTube recording of "Roll the Old Chariot", captured live at the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, has racked up over six million views. He's released four solo albums drawing on traditional and maritime repertoire, including material from Ewan MacColl and Stan Rogers, and appeared onscreen leading shanties in the 2019 film Blow the Man Down. During the pandemic he recorded three digital albums, one of them built entirely from song requests sent in via TikTok, every track done in a single take with no edits.