Nate Coffey recently ran into who he's been looking for: Nate Coffey. He found him in his third album, "Nate Coffey Presents The New Brew." It's a thoughtful collection of funk, reggae, and a little twist of jazz. On it, Coffey says he is now "reaching a level in music where I'm connecting with the person I want to be."

And who wouldn't want to be Nate Coffey? He's an astounding guitarist, solid bass player, drummer, and a gentle soul. He shows up in bands like The Buddhahood or the Boogie Men, or as a host at various open jams, and he shares his love for music with his 40-plus guitar students at Northfield Music and the House of Guitars. But wait, there's more: the man also teaches a gospel choir at the Urban Choice Charter School on Humboldt Street. The choir and some of his guitar students performed at his recent CD-release show in front of a crowd of roughly 300 at Water Street Music Hall.

"It was great," the 38-year-old rocker says. "I had 25 guitar students open the show doing a mix of classical, jazz, rock, and reggae. It was awesome."

Perhaps Coffey's success as a teacher stems from his experiences as a young musician. "I started playing drums and holding down a weekly gig at the age of 13 in my dad's band, BC Enterprise," he says. Mom was behind him, too.

"She was very supportive," Coffey says. "In fact she drove me to one of my first gigs with the Coupe de Villes, when I filled in for their drummer for a set."

It was in BC Enterprise that Coffey's dad, the late Bill Coffey, exposed his young son to, well, everything.

"It was blues based," he says. "But my father was huge. I mean, he covered [everything] from blues to jazz to reggae, rock, funk... He was all over the place."

And that's a lot like Coffey today. He leads the New Brew - which also includes Beau Ryan on bass, Ian Neilson on drums, and Ken Gardner on keyboards - but does so in a rather laissez-faire fashion. Coffey's got chops for sure, the band is strong, and there's an overall sense of contentment, especially on the reggae-inspired cuts. Even when the band gets a little Edgar Winter on the instrumental front with tracks like "Water Dub," the overall vibe in still mondo mellow.

"It's very digestible," says Coffey. "It's a life-lesson album. It's about the past, it's about the future, it's about human rights." And that's where Coffey may get a little aggressive...or at least spiritually proactive.

"Like Carlos Santana - he's very spiritual," Coffey says. "Jimi Hendrix: a forward thinker. Both ahead of their time. That's why they still live on now." It will live on even further with Coffey's students, with whom he emphasizes the fun in feeling the music. His kids don't get bogged down in music theory. They aren't forced into running endless scales. You can't teach passion.

"I try to just make it fun," he says. "I encourage them to experiment. I try to get them to play by ear before reading. And definitely the passion's gotta be there. If you're playing simple blues but the passion is there, I'll like it. If it's a classical piece and the passion's there, I'll give you props for it."

Coffey's passion is consistent, however his choice of genres, venues, even instruments is in a perpetual free flux.

"I'm actually all over the place," he says. "One weekend you'll see me sitting in on guitar with the Buddhahood, you'll hear me playing bass for the Boogie Men, you'll hear me rocking out my originals at places like Water Street or Dub Land on guitar."

What is truly admirable about Coffey is his genuine humility. There are guitar players half as good as Coffey who come off three times as arrogant. That just isn't Coffey's way.

"I have a little bit of a knack for making music and adding to it," he says. "But I don't want to come off pompous. I give respect from the ant to the eagle." Somewhere in between lies Coffey on a cloud of contentment.

"In the last five years, what is in my ears and heart is really coming out," he says. "I'm in a really good place. I'm pretty happy right now."

Nate Coffey

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