A big year for Ned LeDoux: film debut, Red Rocks, and a duet with Dan Seals

The past year has been big for Wyoming singer Ned LeDoux, including a duet with the late Dan Seals. LeDoux doesn’t know why the Seals estate chose him for the new version of “God Must Be a Cowboy,” but it’s his favorite of all Seals’ many great hits. “There’s just something about this song,” he said. “And maybe it’s the fact that my dad recorded it as well, a few years after Dan wrote it.”

The opportunity came while LeDoux was already in Nashville cutting vocals for his latest record “Safe Haven.” His agent called with news that the Dan Seals estate and Melody Records were putting together a duet project built from Seals’ original masters, and they wanted LeDoux to sing “God Must Be a Cowboy” for it. “I mean, you couldn’t have timed it any better,” he said. “We took a little break from singing my songs and laid down the vocal track for Dan’s.”

Sound engineers blended LeDoux’s track into Seals’ original recording until it sounded as if the two had been standing side by side at the same microphone. “It sounds like we’re in the same studio, but, of course, Dan’s been gone now for quite a while,” LeDoux said. “But just singing along, recording this song, just hearing his voice in my headphones as we were laying down my vocal track, that was pretty magical.”

The duet was released March 13. LeDoux also has his first movie appearances in “Outriding the Devil” and “Buffalo Daze,” and will soon open for fellow Wyoming singer-songwriter Ian Munsick at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. “Obviously the LeDoux name is just so important for the culture of the West,” Munsick said. “For me to be able to bring Ned on as one of the openers, I feel like his music will just hit so hard there.”