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 2019 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 was a woodworker by day and songwriter by night. After a few years of open mic’ing in the valley, she took a step away from folk and began ten years of singing jazz standards. While she writes jazz songs in both old and new styles, she’s a songwriter at heart, and the jazz sensibility has added a whole new field of color across the her folky blues, adding a complexity and richness. There are three records currently in the final phases. Her latest CD, Dreamers of Atlantis is a songwriter-via-country-swing album that travels through her unique Americanasonic sound, with songs about things old as time and things that get under the skin of modern life. A funkier take on the same, released in December 2019, was her album Pass It On, including a long Steely Dan-like ode to hurricanes called ‘That’s What She Said’. The horns and piano add to the sense of torrent behind the song with a compelling interwomen race to the end. A five-song EP is due sometime next year, the exploring the theme of ambedo. Also coming down the road is 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.

Writing and arranging are as much a part of McDuffie’s music as her singing. Though she seldom plays on stage, her instruments include piano, drums, guitar, clarinet and harmonica, and various percussion pieces she experiments with in her woodshop.

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, Dean Sharp, Jim Curtin, Mark Murphy, Lindsey Horner, Adam Cote, Lew Scott, Bill Hornman, Eric Puente, Sam Friedman & T. Xiques.

Dreamers of Atlantis and the previous release, Pass It On, were recorded by Rob Kissner at Cassandra Studio in Beacon, NY. Arranging, editing, vocals and special effects happen in McDuffie’s home studio, Night Ride.