TheCountryAngel: OUT OF THE CHUTE

Monday, November 15, 2021

OUT OF THE CHUTE - Rigby Summer

Good morning, everyone!

Today, we are checking in with Rigby Summer.

Thanks for joining us in KellysCountry today, Rigby!

You’ve been writing and performing for a good number of years. You released an EP in the fall of 2020. Now you have a full album barely a year later. Was the EP a teaser of what you had to offer in GEOGRAPHY?

The EP was a pandemic project. Geography was ready to send for artwork and print and the plan was to release it in Fall 2020, but then of course, we all went on lock down and after having travelled so much in the years prior, I didn’t release my debut album at a time that I couldn’t tour it--I mean, it’s called GEOGRAPHY and I couldn’t travel!

But I wanted to do something to reach out and build a little momentum so when I qualified for PUA (pandemic unemployment assistance) at the end of the summer I decided to invest some of that in my music. I had an idea for a long time that I wanted to do a “holiday adjacent” album someday with songs that were fit for the season but not your typical holiday standards, especially for anyone who might feel a bit melancholy through the holidays.

This seemed like the perfect time. Kyle (Reid) has this song Dancing Alone that is just fantastic and in a year when EVERYONE was going to be dancing alone on New Year’s Eve, it was the perfect anchor for the EP.

That little project saved my sanity last fall--everything about it was just fun and low-pressure because these were all covers--my interpretations of other people’s songs--as opposed to the debut of my own. We spent a couple of days in studio and did most of the dialing in for final mixes remotely. We even sent the title track to Montreal to get the tuba and banjo treatment from Les Royal Pickles. The icing on the cake was when the manager of historic Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa allowed my photographer friend, Sarah Huhn, and me into the space for an hour to shoot the cover. I still can’t believe how everything came together in the span of 4-6 weeks...I don’t think that little project could have been made that way at any other time.

You took some time off then seems as if you’ve come back with a vengeance. What did you learn about yourself during that hiatus?

Well, the hiatus was never really intentional. But there is a sort of dichotomy to what I learned from that season. On one hand, I look back and understand now more than ever how important it is to know yourself and deeply plant your roots there because there will always be someone ready to tell you where you should or shouldn't belong or how to spend your days. If you always look to others to validate your path, you’ll just get blown off track because everyone’s wind is coming from a different direction.

But on the other hand, I have gratitude for that time. In that time, there are things that I learned about life and business and myself that have enabled me to approach things differently this time around. That previous version of myself was younger and cuter and skinnier but she had no idea what she was doing. She was talented, but she didn’t know what to do with it. She needed to get her mind right. She didn’t yet have the fortitude to handle resistance when it came her way...so if you see everything in life as learning, there is no lost time. And if my story can help someone else get back on their true path, then it’s all happening right on time.

Did any of that hiatus find its way into this LP and if so, would you point out specifics?

Your music & style has drawn comparisons with Brandi Carlile and Lucinda Williams. Those names pack a punch. How do you feel about the comparisons?

Well, tell me two bigger badasses in Americana music right now! I am honored every time it happens. Vocally, I hear Brandi pretty regularly. But as much as I love her, I was surprised when I started hearing Lucinda, but that has happened more often after performances, so yeah, I dig it. If I am developing vocals comparable to Brandi and performance swagger comparable to Lucinda, I am gonna lean into that!

Who do you consider to be your biggest musical influences in your life?

Well, if you mean formative people in my life, that’s easy: my brother and my mom’s best friend Mary. They helped inform my musical taste early on. I went through this phase as a tween where I only listened to the oldies station. All my peers were learning dances to pop music at recess but was going home to sing along with the Shirelles and the Rolling Stones. I was a weird kid! Mary tuned into that and started feeding me music pretty early on. She taped off all her Mary Chapin Carpenter CDs for me and I absorbed every note. I studied those songs and wanted to be her. Then my brother loved music and we went to a lot of great concerts together growing up. Because of him, my first real concert was Paul McCartney at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Between the two of us, we knew almost every lyric to every song on the 70s rock station.

Of those folks, what would you say had the biggest effect on who you are as an artist now?

I’m going to dodge this a little bit and focus on the “who I am as an artist now” end of this question, because I don’t think I really ever realized how attainable it actually is to set on out on this path and do the dang thing when I was younger. For sure, it is more possible now because there are fewer gatekeepers in the music industry these days. So the biggest influences on me becoming the artist I am now are the performers who were willing to come share the stage with me at my concert series in Stillwater. That event became my school when music came back to me in 2017. For the first year or so I was for sure playing WAY out of my league! I had no business sharing the stage with a lot of those performers. But they were so gracious and I learned something every month, either just from observation or sometimes things that they would directly tell me. A turning point for me was when, after a while, I had a few hosting experiences where some artists showed me who I didn’t want to be as a guest and an artist. Haha..thats’ when I realized I had slowly been growing into my own.

I will say that one of the hosting experiences that was most positively formative was when Belle Plaine and Blake Berglund came down from Saskatchewan and we ended up playing about a week of shows together after a week of radio and rehearsals. I had only been back at it about a year and while I had a certain level of confidence in myself as an artist, working with them was a considerable uplevel from where I was at that time. Most of the week I felt like I had maybe dove in to the deep end a little too quickly!

But working with them and their guitar player those two weeks, getting to know them, I got to see the stage persona versus who they are as people and I saw just how connected they were--on stage they lean in to the best parts of their values, their personalities and their relationships with each other. It was really special to watch. I saw first hand how they worked together as a band behind the scenes, taking care of one another and getting the work done together. And I think I came away feeling permission to bring my own swagger to the stage. I know my performance and stagecraft was heavily influenced from working with them.

I love the album cover. Geography in itself is more than just a place, it’s what gives us peace wherever we are. What brings you peace?

I’ve been revisiting the audiobook of Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness on the road lately. It’s been a good reminder of this idea of belonging everywhere by belonging nowhere--by belonging first to myself. My entire childhood I dreamed of travel. And then I took my first trip abroad when I was nineteen. I can safely say that every place I have lived or traveled since then has felt a little like home, so in terms of physical geography, I have often felt an attachment or sense of belonging everywhere I go. But it can at times feel lonely, not feeling fully rooted in any of those places. When that loneliness or anxiety builds up, I try to come back to those things that center and ground me: going for a walk--bonus if I can really get out in nature for a hike--sitting in stillness, focusing on my breathing...gosh, even re-engaging with the road.

If you could offer one tip to artists trying to find their vibe in this business, what would that tip be?

Know yourself and be that, unabashedly. Your story, your message and your music are a gift and there are people who need to hear it. If you are trying to be someone else, you aren’t going to find your audience. It’s an ongoing process, learning to love and trust yourself, but when you set on that path, the right people will find you.

I'll be back tomorrow with a review of GEOGRAPHY. In the mean time, here's the first track from her YouTube channel: