Check Out Rigby Summer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rigby Summer.

Rigby, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Oh wow, that is a long, winding road for sure! That’s why this first album that I just released in October is called Geography–each of the songs marks a specific point on the emotional map of my life. Music was always an important part of my life, but it took a long time to own that it was something I could do myself.

After college, not believing that I was good enough to be a musician myself, I took my spreadsheet skills to Nashville and tried my hand at working for other musicians. I fell into an incredible group of talented friends who seemed to be miles ahead of me with their commercial music degrees and their jobs as session or touring musicians. No one knew that I even wanted to or could sing and play.

Naturally, I was miserable.

I eventually moved back to Kansas City and was selling real estate when I joined some friends at Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. When we got back, I started a weekly jam with some friends from that trip and my musical wheels really started turning. I was starting to write. A lot. But I still didn’t play my originals for anyone until I took a vacation to visit a friend in Los Angeles. When I played my songs for their friends for the first time they were like “are you kidding me??” By the end of the trip, they offered help getting settled if I wanted to come west and have a go at music.

I said yes and Los Angeles was where I really started to settle into my identity as a songwriter. But I still had miles to go. Things got tough. I met a guy from Oklahoma and ended up back in the middle of the map. After we got married, I went on an accidental hiatus from performing and really thought that ship had sailed.

In 2017, the same year that my marriage dissolved, I was given an opportunity–seemingly out of the blue–to start a pop up concert series in Stillwater, Oklahoma. For three years (up until the pandemic) it was my school. I learned so much so very quickly from hosting and performing with songwriters who had more experience. Within a year, I was playing paying gigs on the regular, touring several months of the year and started work on this debut album.

With restrictions lifting, I’ve been back on the road full-time since the end of July and I split what is left of my time between the Kansas City area and Oklahoma. And I’m overjoyed that the response to the album in these first few weeks since it was released has been really positive. It’s a weird combination of joy, pride and relief that not only are people listening, but they seem to really love what they are hearing.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not smooth at all! The oldest song I wrote that I kept and still play (Kentucky) is actually on the album. I wrote it while I was still in Nashville and the only friend I was brave enough to play it for at the time got distracted in the middle and left the room–and it’s only a two minute song!

I was nearly thirty before I owned that this was something I really wanted and was called to. That’s when I moved to Los Angeles. Looking back, I made more progress in those two years than I believed at the time and no one had taught me about the resistance you will face when forging a different path. It’s tempting to say that because of that, it was easy to give it up and follow a path of less resistance, but it wasn’t. It was awful. But it was necessary.

All those years that I was following other life and career interests, I was constantly thinking about music and wondering if I had given up too easily after it had taken me so long to follow that path. But I was also building new mindset and business muscles that would eventually serve me when the opportunities for music returned.

When I’m tempted to curse some of those years as wasted, I remember the lessons I learned and how different I am from that girl I was in Los Angeles or Nashville. Everything is happening right on time.

It took several reboots and iterations of myself to arrive here…and it makes me excited for what future versions are yet to come.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an independent, touring, performing songwriter, which means I wear many hats in my business.

Now that my debut album is out and I’m settling into a new flow of how to manage all that this side of my business entails, I’m lending some focus to additional projects I’ve had simmering.

I am proud of my story and that others seem to see themselves and find hope when they hear it. It’s big part of why I’m insanely proud of this album that I’ve been promoting. I have had some folks approach me to help unravel their own stories and so I am slowly starting to offer my time to others who are trying to find their own way, first through one-on-one conversations and eventually some group programs.

I’m also starting to turn some more focus to an initiative I call ALL MUSIC STARTS LOCAL–I am obsessed with creating unique experiences around music and community. I want to do that more and more and then help other musicians, fans, venues and creatives do the same in their local communities. I’m still figuring out what that can or should look like. I will be producing a showcase at the Folk Alliance conference here in Kansas City this February and am exploring some opportunities to connect with and reinforce the local scenes in some of the markets where I tour. I want to help develop a better, smarter way for independent musicians to tour. One that is built on local communities so we aren’t always out here doing the thing on an island.

I think that is something that sets me apart. I was willing to take the long road to get here, and from the get-go this time around, I have believed that the best way to do this is taking others along with me–being humble enough to surround myself with and learn from people who were way better than me but also being willing to use any opportunity or knowledge that I am given us an opportunity to elevate the community and local music scene at large.

It is easy to slip into this false urgency and try to push things through quickly and to see other musicians and songwriters as competition. That for sure was my old M.O., but it comes from a place of scarcity that I think we as women are especially conditioned to believe that we have an expiration date and that there are finite opportunities. It’s funny to me that as I get older, I work hard and I’m still tenacious, but I think I push less. I have way more patience than when I was younger. You can’t rush learning and growth. You can’t rush relationships.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
There are so many that it feels dangerous to try to list them! The obvious credit is to my parents have been so very patient and supportive. It is amazing to me how many of my creative friends don’t have support from their family, so I”m very grateful. I know they don’t always understand me, but they are still supportive.

There have been so many little moments that have been nearly as powerful as long-term mentorship–moments like when my high school choir teacher simply asked at the end of class if I was going to audition for the musical that night. I wanted to but wasn’t sure I had a place, so that question that probably seemed like nothing to him actually changed my life, as that became a huge part of my high school experience.

There was the night my friend Mark in Los Angeles asked me to play something I’d written and then enlisted his friends to show up for all my gigs after I moved there….the industry people who would offer encouragement when I was busking in Santa Monica and the promoters who put me on showcases–all of those little moments slowly built my belief.

In the years, I wasn’t doing much with music, I was blessed with business mentorship from my friends Kirk and Teresa Reh in Overland Park. The mindset coaching I received from them has been one of the most important catalysts for my success this time around.

Then when the opportunity to launch the concert series came about, so many musicians in the Oklahoma scene as well as in the Kansas City acoustic scene really wrapped me in love. There is a group that used to meet weekly in Oklahoma called Tuesday Night Music Club, led by Rick Reiley. Every week he and his partner welcomed musicians of all ages and skill levels and as it has been for many, many, many musicians there, that group was a safe space to learn and grow musically. And I could list pages of lessons learned from the musicians who shared the stage with me in those years.

Finally and most recently, for the last year I’ve been working with a money coach named Selina Gray. The work I’ve done with her and the small group of female CEOs who have been walking through the program with me has completely transformed me and blown the lid off what I know is possible with my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rigbysummer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rigbysummer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RigbySummerMusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfLNbe5m9TE&feature=youtu.be
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rigbysummermusic
• Other: https://found.ee/RSGeography

Image Credits
The three photos in which I’m holding a guitar were taken by Sarah Barker Huhn. The album art I included is from Ali Harter-Street at Pigs Fly Shop.