Duane Andrews Biography
A native of the island of Newfoundland, off the east coast of Canada, Duane grew up exposed to the island’s mélange of cultural influences and his development as a guitarist reflects that. After graduating from the Jazz Studies program at St. FXU with honours, Duane spent several years studying contemporary music composition at the Conservatoire International de Paris and at the Conservatoire National de Region in Marseille, France.
His discography starts with the release of his debut solo CD, simply titled, Duane Andrews (2004), which led to the multiple award winning Crocus (2006), then Raindrops (2008), which features a collaboration with the Atlantic String Quartet and two albums with Cape Breton master fiddler Dwayne Côté, Dwayne Côté and Duane Andrews (2010) and The Empress (2012).
Other notable collaborations include Charlie’s Boogie (2013) with bluegrass guitarist/singer/songwriter extraordinaire Craig Young which evolved into Fretboard Journey (2016) with the addition of fellow Newfoundland guitarists Sandy Morris and Gordon Quinton. Playing regular Sunday sessions in Quidi Vidi, NL with accordionist Aaron Collis resulted in The Mallard Cottage Sessions (2015) and his most recent collaboration, the Juno award winning More Sheep, Less Sleep (2015) from The Swinging Belles with children’s educators Erin Power and Laura Winter.
