Richard Daigle

I'm a late bloomer artists, released my first CD in 2020. Here's a nice review that came out, check it out! I’m a retired writer/editor and communications specialist turned singer/songwriter the last several years. Things happen in life and we all find ways of processing. Songwriting is often that for me. I was so blessed and fortunate to be married for 34 years to Jan White Daigle, a fine woman, beautiful inside and out. She loved God and loved people, always cheerful and faithful. In 2014, cancer took away what should’ve been a fuller life but she made the most of the years she had and she touched so many people with me at the front of that list. Since then, I’ve met some wonderful women and had relationship and life experiences that have inspired songs. When it comes to songwriting influence, John Prine is at the top of the list. Someone turned me on to his first album when I was in college in the mid to late 70s and I was hooked. I first saw him in 1977 at a bar at the foot of Sunshine Bridge near Donaldsonville, La. Glad they didn’t call the fire marshal because we were sardines in there, packed to the gills. Then, around 1979 or so, he played a show in Jekyll Island. I was a reporter for The Brunswick News daily paper and I interviewed him. As my song "John Prine, A Friend of Mine" details, he invited me for dinner, broke several guitar strings that night, and then I saw him decades later at a New Years Eve 2016 show in Nashville with Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves. The woman I was dating at the time won the tickets when she heard it on the radio. I always wish I could have met him again because I’m sure he would’ve gotten a kick out of remembering the Jekyll Island show and my interview with him (which I doubt he ever got to read). John Prine songs say so much in so few words. Beyond his songwriting genius, he was a regular and a really good guy. I hope you enjoy my songs. If you do, let me know! :) BOOKING I'M AVAILABLE FOR HOME CONCERTS AND OTHER VENUES. I AM VACCINATED NOW SO TRYING TO BE MORE ACTIVE WITH MY MUSIC. For Press BIOGRAPHY Born in New Orleans, Richard Daigle learned how to peel crawfish and dismantle a blue crab before he lost his baby teeth. After moving away for elementary school in Memphis then middle school in Dallas, Richard ‘s family moved back to Louisiana, in Gretna on the West Bank (the Best bank) where he played guitar in his room and played in high school garage bands with practice sessions outnumbering actual gigs by a substantial margin, although one of his bands indeed rocked the house at the West Jefferson High School talent show. At 11, Richard saw The Beatles as his first live concert in 1966 at Mid South coliseum in Memphis, thanks to the generosity of his late older brother, Lennet, who let his kid brother tag along. From 1970 to 1977, he saw every classic rock band known to man, from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top, at the legendary Warehouse on Tchoupitoulas Street. His high school rock band and Warehouse concert experiences gave him a music foundation and tinnitus that have both remained with him until this day. As a retired writer/editor, it made sense he’d become a songwriter, although it took several decades for that sense to actually seep into his cranium. He began writing songs in earnest in his late 50s, drawing inspiration from his favorite artist and one-time dinner companion, John Prine. He worked on his stage skills at The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, GA, a noted jazz club that held a weekly open mic night for any genre of music, even a singer/songwriter with quirky Americana/folk/country songs that were far removed from jazz standards. After moving to Chattanooga in 2019, he continued playing open mics and eventually paid gigs. He began and hosted a concert series, Chattanooga Song Circle and has just started Red Couch Sessions, both promoting local singer/songwriters. Richard lost his wife, Jan, to cancer in 2014 after 34 years of marriage to a wonderful woman who was far better than he deserved. He has three grown kids, Richie, Bethany and Caroline, who all reside in Chattanooga and seem to have survived their youths and turned out okay. He also has a grandson, Emmett Charles Daigle, who, unbeknownst to him at this time, will one day play guitar and write songs. Of course, he might have a choice in the matter...might. When he’s not playing guitar or writing a song, Richard can be found on a tennis court or sitting on his back deck watching hummingbirds and getting lost in thought ranging from deep to shallow to completely irrelevant.