Margaret McDuffie - Pass It On (2019)

Americanasonic is what you might call the melting pot that is this singer's songwriting. Also a jazz chanteuse, McDuffie has been scribbling metaphors and humming tunes in the direction of social consciousness since the teenage years. But there's a lot of warmth and flirtation in her style as well. She sings about floods and injustice alongside beauty and romance without anything ever feeling out of place.
The influences run deep, spanning from the dry, earthy strains of early folk and blues through to the lush, rhythmic flow of modern rhythm & blues. The 20th Century saw a fabulous cornucopia of musical talent to learn from and aspire to, but there are some key voices that lie under this sound: The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and a little bit of Patsy Cline and Sonny James.
In songs like 'Near Midnight' from the upcoming release Pass It On, you can hear a hints of a few of these greats fusing within the song. The arrangements have an old-fashioned feel though the message is insistently current, and the musicianship is always solid - at times downright sublime.
When McDuffie came to the Hudson Valley she took a step away from folk & Americana and began fifteen years of singing jazz standards. While she writes jazz songs in both old and new styles, the jazz sensibility has added a whole new field of color across the her folky blues and added a complexity and richness to the music that you don't often hear in popular music. There are three records currently in the final phases. ~ A lyrical collection of jazz standards and originals in the standard style, including an obscure gem of a standard featuring Tony Garnier's warm, melodic bass. ~ A dreamy & upbeat songwriter-via-country-swing record with that Americanasonic sound, with songs abut things old as time and things that get under the skin of modern life, and ~ A funkier take on the same, which is being released in December 2019, called Pass It On.
McDuffie & Co. and The McDuffie Trio have performed for some ten years in the valley, notably at The Falcon in Marlboro, the Towne Crier, Beacon's Dogwood Bar, the Howland Center, Garrison Depot Theater Music Tracks Series, and the newly minted Tompkins Corners Cultural Center. Ensembles have included the fantastic talents of regional players such as Steve Raleigh, Art Labriola, Sara Milonovich, Mike DeMicco, Ed Diehl, John Harms, Matt Finck, Lou Pappas, Jim Curtin, Mark Muphy, Lindsey Horner, Adam Cote, Lew Scott, Bill Hornman, Sam Friedman, Dean Sharp & T. Xiques.
In the studio, she has most recently recorded with Rob Kissner at Cassandra Studio in Beacon, NY. The current and upcoming releases were mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music in Cornwall, NY. The editing, arranging, and some vocal recording happens in McDuffie's own studio, Night Ride.