Andrew Duhon

Emerald blue. Thereʼs something soothing and sustaining about the words, the way they evoke the lushness of nature: the depths of calm water, a leafy and oxygen-rich forest, the expansive sky above, unpolluted air to breathe. Singer-songwriter Andrew Duhon chose them for the title of his fourth album, eleven songs he wrote and recorded during the turbulence, uncertainty, and confinement of 2020 and 2021 in part because of those poetic properties. Under COVID quarantine, amid political turmoil, they represented places heʼd found beauty, solace and possibilities in recent years: The blue-green land and waterscapes of the Pacific Northwest, and the eyes of the woman he followed there from his native New Orleans. “It was a revelation to a muddy Mississippi dweller,” he said. Duhon first picked up the guitar as a teenaged Catholic schoolkid, playing praise and worship music for the campus ministry. That was a secondary pursuit for a while – his priority was serving as his high school baseball teamʼs first string southpaw pitcher – until a torn rotator cuff took him off the field and opened up a lot more free time for him to hone his musical chops. He devoured old music that packed an emotional punch and told a story, like the warm melancholy of Delta bluesmen Lightninʼ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt, the vivid detail and narrative artistry of John Prine and Jim Croce, and of course, the skill of master New Orleanian songwriters and bandleaders like Allen Toussaint and Dave Bartholomew. Brass bands, trad jazz and funk all loom large in the image of New Orleans music, of course, but Duhonʼs city also has a storied history of producing or nourishing folkies, acoustic blues pickers and guitar-linging storytellers, too.