DRIVER PROFILE: Driving Feeds Family; Music Feeds Soul

RAGWIRE MAN: Codner invented a new musical genre.

By Nickisha Rashid

BRANTFORD, ON. — Herrington Codner is a singer, songwriter and author. He plays  guitar, drums and knows his way around the piano. He is also a trucker. 

He hails from Jamaica where his father was an owner-operator. When he was five, the family moved to Brantford ON., and that’s where he grew up with his three brothers and three sisters.

Codner got into trucking three years ago and has driving long-haul with Schneider National since.  

He says it can sometimes be difficult maintaining life as both a driver and musician but Schneider is flexible with his schedule allowing him time for his performances. And he’s found a good rhythm balancing his life on the road and his life on the stage. 

“Trucking is what keeps food on the table; music is the passion that keeps the soul alive,” he says.

Codner drives with the radio off, listening to the sounds of the road.  Behind the wheel is where most of his songs are born. He says inspiration for his music comes from his everyday surroundings, and trucking life provides more than enough great ideas.

He uses his downtime at truck stops, in his cab, or at loading docks to compose and get ideas down on paper. In fact most of the eight tracks on his third studio album Real were written and developed on the road.

His sound is a unique blend of his signature reggae vocals with everything from sweet rock-and-roll riffs to stringed instruments and trumpet solos.

Codner studied industrial management and music at Mohawk College in Hamilton, ON. His studies focused on jazz and classical music. But his songs also incorporate blues, rock and reggae resulting in a new genre he calls “ragwire”.

Codner even started his own record company, Center Lane Records. You can check him out on Facebook or at this website.