It was Leo Tolstoy who said “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town,” and in the case of Andrew Duhon and his latest album Emerald Blue, both instances are true. Duhon temporarily left New Orleans, his longtime home and musical muse in 2019, finding himself inspired by the landscape of the Pacific Northwest and notably, its colors—a hue he describes as ‘emerald blue’ for which the album is named, the same shade looking back at him in his partner’s eyes. Had he overlooked the specific shade of her eyes while living below sea level? Or did the change of location open his mind more acutely? The record does just that: examine the familiar in the context of the unfamiliar. Emerald Blue is a probing appreciation of the dailiness of life; a note-taking exercise in living.