Andrew Duhon's new 'Emerald Blue' is out Friday, July 29.

Andrew Duhon's new 'Emerald Blue' is out Friday, July 29.

Andrew Duhon is trying to get out of the rat race. Or, at least, he’s just trying to find a better balance in life.

The New Orleans singer-songwriter’s new full-length album, “Emerald Blue,” is filled with songs about slowing down, living intentionally and using our time well before it finally runs out. There’s a cabin in Duhon’s mind. It’s a goal for a new, more peaceful home as well as a resting place for his thoughts — but, he confesses on the song “Down from the Mountain,” he isn’t quite yet ready for the cabin.

“I think the ultimate goal will be a certain balance,” says Duhon from a van on his way to a tour gig in Colorado. “Now, I hope when I find that cabin, it inspires me to stay more than I planned on, but it remains that I have ambition and it’s all wrapped around with trying to share these songs with more people.”

“Emerald Blue,” Duhon’s fourth solo record, is an outing of wandering Americana heavily inspired by the native New Orleanian’s trips in the Pacific Northwest and the pandemic-forced pause that hit musicians in 2020. Duhon and his band are on tour ahead of the album’s release on Friday, and they’ll be back in New Orleans on Saturday to play a release show at One Eyed Jacks.

Duhon has been busy for years. Open mics and weekly gigs in the French Quarter led to his first album, “Songs I Wrote Before I Knew You,” in 2009, and his second full-length, “The Moorings,” was nominated for the 2014 Grammy for best engineered album. His third record, “False River,” was released in 2018. Amid it all, he toured regularly as a trio with bassist Myles Weeks and drummer Jim Kolacek.

In recent years, an urge to ease back had been scratching at the back of Duhon’s mind — a feeling that was only encouraged by his girlfriend’s move to Moses Lake, Washington, to take a health care job. Duhon flew up to see her for about a week every month and camped and explored the region’s lakes and forests. He’s also been searching for a place to call a second home, where he could split his time with New Orleans.

“That was about following a girl with blue-green eyes up to Washington, and what I found was a blue-green landscape that was enchanting,” Duhon says. The “emerald” in the album title alludes to the Pacific Northwest landscape, Duhon adds, but the “blue” is for New Orleans — the hometown influences are always there.

Then the pandemic hit, forcing Duhon, like musicians all over the world, to suddenly stop. “It put into perspective what the hustle and the speed had been,” he says, “because it was probably the first time that I had done without it since getting in the van.”

Stuck at home, Duhon started writing. He ended up writing more than 30 new tunes and began recording videos of stripped-down performances in his home he would publish to Patreon and YouTube. Before he knew it, the world had started to re-open, and he took most of those songs to Dockside Studio in Maurice last fall, recording 18 songs for the ultimately 11-track “Emerald Blue.”

The album features Weeks on bass, drummer Jano Rix and keyboardist and accordionist Dan Walker. Tif Lamson sings on the track “Diggin’ Deep Down,” and violinist Rurik Nunan appears on the song “Down from the Mountain.” Trina Shoemaker, who has worked with Duhon on his past albums, produced “Emerald Blue.”

Duhon didn’t necessarily set out to write an album about finding a new pace in life — the condensed writing time of the early pandemic months just pulled out his thoughts — but the touching “Slow Down” finds Duhon asking his partner to be “right here, right now.” The track “Plans” reflects on all those trips and activities he wants to take but never quite finds the time. On “Down From the Mountain,” Duhon plays the prophet who has seen a better way to live.

Similarly, songs like “Promised Land” and “Emerald Blue” paint a picture of the Pacific Northwest. As the album plays out, you can hear the influence the cold, misty mornings and some solo hiking had on Duhon. It’s easy to imagine Duhon and his guitar and rich voice working out “Emerald Blue” over a campfire.

Still, New Orleans isn’t far away. Rhythm and blues influences work their way in, and on the song “Castle on Irish Bayou,” Duhon imagines the opportunity to ditch the city’s rising rent and set up camp in the local landmark Irish Bayou Castle (which did recently go on the market for $500,000). The song “Everybody Colored Their Own Jesus” would sound familiar to anyone who grew up as a Catholic school kid.

“There’s a reason this idea of a cabin in my mind, it has to be a bilocation. It’s because I can’t all together leave New Orleans. I’m still tied to that place. I don’t think it’s just a sense of home, I think it’s what New Orleans gives me personally and creatives more broadly,” Duhon says.

“Emerald Blue” will be released Friday, July 29. Find the album at andrewduhon.com. Duhon plays One Eyed Jacks at 9 p.m. Saturday, July 30. Tickets are $15 at oneeyedjacks.net.

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