Ned LeDoux’s upcoming album finds the country singer creating joy from loss.
The 47-year-old son of country music legend and rodeo champion Chris LeDoux is set to release his newest album, “Safe Haven,” on April 4.
The album comes 20 years after his father died of cancer and more than five years after losing his daughter Haven Jo, whom he welcomed with his wife Morgan in 2017.
LeDoux, who has lived a life scarred by tragedy, has chosen to turn these lives gone too soon into music.
“In his latest album, touchingly titled Safe Haven, he uses the memories of those he has lost to help him carry on with joy, celebration, and a faith that they are guiding his work,” the singer shares on his website.
That’s why LeDoux chose to name the album after his late daughter.
“I got a picture of me and my daughter hanging on the wall where I write, and I was brainstorming album titles one day,” he said, per his website.
“I just wrote her name down and thought that her name, Haven Jo, would be a good album title,” he continued.
Several days later, his younger brother Will pitched the title “Safe Haven,” which LeDoux thought was a “perfect fit.”
He further described it as “less a way to move on than to acknowledge the ways in which he’ll never be the same again.”
LeDoux’s daughter passed away on Oct. 20, 2019 due to a tragic choking accident in the home. The singer revealed the news in a Facebook post one week later.
LeDoux and his wife are also parents to an older son named Bronson.
LeDoux’s first single off the album features a special someone
On Dec. 4, LeDoux released the first single, “One Hand in the Riggin’,” off his much-anticipated album.
The song was originally meant to be released by his father decades ago. While that never came to fruition, LeDoux was given an opportunity to revive the song.
It also gave him one more opportunity to sing with his late pops.
On his website, LeDoux explains that he was approached by a singer named Brenn Hill, who had written the song for his father.
“It was never released with my dad’s vocals, but Hill recently reached out and asked if I wanted to sing on it, and include the vocals he recorded with my dad,” LeDoux says.
And just like that, a father-son duet — more than 20 years in the making — was born.
“It was both emotional and really exciting bringing the song back to life,” LeDoux said in an interview with Cowboys & Indians — adding that he had “never heard our voices side-by-side like that before.”
“So hearing that and realizing just how similar they are to one another helped me to understand where people’s comparisons were coming from,” LeDoux continued.
More recently, on Jan. 31, LeDoux released the second single off the album, titled “Boys Growing Up.”
The song is an ode to his childhood and the memories he shared with his brothers living on a ranch.
As the chorus goes: “Toys get faster, drinks get stronger, skin gets thicker, and the shadows get longer. Don’t mind us; we’re just boys growing up.”
LeDoux will be performing in Omaha, NE on March 28 and Wichita, KS on March 29 prior to the album’s release, according to LeDoux’s PR team.
He then has seven more shows scheduled between May and August in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota.
Fans can listen to “One Hand in the Riggin’” and “Boys Growing Up” now. “Safe Haven” will be released April 4.
