Dallas-based singer-songwriter and pediatric oncologist Andy Koh has been making music since his undergraduate days at Harvard in the late 80s. Now, with nearly four decades of writing behind him, he returns to release his debut LP, Taking the Long Way, due October 30, 2026.

Today, Koh shares the album’s second single, “My Side,” an upbeat, melodic song about the familiar ache of unrequited love. Beneath that straightforward story, however, the track carries a deeper personal history tied to Koh’s late friend and early musical collaborator Peter Wilson, whose original piano arrangement was recreated for the new recording.

“My Side carries a history that goes back to my first band in college.”Koh shares.“A close friend of mine, Peter Wilson, who was blind from a childhood cancer, had what we used to call “monster ears.” He heard everything, could play everything, and made all of us better musicians. Peter later died from a second cancer, not long after we graduated. Years later, I became a pediatric oncologist, caring for children facing the same disease. This song holds that connection quietly within it.”

Taking the Long Way brings together songs written across nearly four decades. Some were carried forward quietly over time. Others were revisited, revised, and eventually completed in recent years, along with new work. The album traces songs written early on, set aside for years, and returned to later, with a renewed sense of purpose and conviction.

Recorded with a small group of first-call session players, including bassist Sean Hurley and drummer Jake Reed, the sessions were focused on finally realizing what these songs had sounded like in his head for decades. Mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineers Darrell Thorp and Michael Romanowski, the focus is kept squarely on the songs themselves.

The result is an energetic, heartfelt celebration of life, time, and duality.

“My Side” is out August 18th. Taking the Long Way is out October 30, 2026 via all DSPS.

TAKING THE LONG WAY – TRACKLISTING
1. The Test
2. My Side
3. Make It Alright
4. Sing Into Your Heart
5. Good Things
6. Tell Me
7. Everything
8. Fool’s Food
9.  Taking the Long Way

ANDY KOH BIO:

Andy Koh is a Dallas-based singer-songwriter and pediatric oncologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center. A Rhodes Scholar, he began writing songs as an undergraduate at Harvard College in the 80s, and spent the 90s playing and recording with the band coloring tunes, drawing interest from major labels before choosing a career in medicine.

Decades later, he returns with a collection of nine songs spanning nearly forty years of writing — recorded with first-call session players including bassist Sean Hurley and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp. Taking the Long Way is about time, distance, and return.