Sam Riggs is an American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
singer-songwriter.
Biography
Sam Riggs was born in
St. Cloud, Florida
St. Cloud is a city in northern Osceola County, Florida, United States. It is on the southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida, about southeast of Orlando. The population was 35,183 in the 2010 census, and 54,579 in the 2019 cen ...
.
He moved to
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
in August 2007 when he was 19 years old.
He worked in
manual labour but also performed his songs in local cafes and bars. Riggs released his first
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. , ''Hairpin Trigger Heart'', in 2010.
He met
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie Hubbard (born November 13, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter.
Early life
Hubbard was born in the town of Soper, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in southwest Dallas, Texas, in 1954. He attended W. H. Adamson High Schoo ...
in 2011, who taught him his
fingerpicking
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...
style.
Riggs sold all of his possessions to finance the release of his second extended play, ''Lighthouse'', released in 2012.
Riggs' full-length debut album, ''Outrun the Sun'', was released on October 29, 2013 by Vision Entertainment. The album was released under the moniker Sam Riggs and the Night People.
The first two singles reached the top 10 on the Texas Music Chart. The video for the single "When the Lights Go Out" peaked at number one on
CMT's fan-voted Pure 12 Pack Countdown. One of the album's songs, "Collide", was featured in the TV show ''
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
''. The album sold over 10,000 copies and earned him Artist of the Year at the first Texas Magazine Texas Music Awards.
In February 2015, Riggs released "Second Hand Smoke", the first song from his second studio album. The album, ''Breathless'', was released on February 19, 2016.
Riggs produced the album with Eric Herbst. It was released on his own record label, Deep Creek Records, and funded by a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
project. ''Breathless'' debuted at number 12 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Country Albums chart
and number 168 on the
''Billboard'' 200,
selling 3,800 copies in its first week of release. On February 1, 2019, Sam released his first single of 2019, "Obsessed" and on March 1, 2019, he released his current single, "Until My Heart Stops Beating".
Personal life
Riggs is currently married and has a son.
Discography
Albums
Extended plays
Music videos
Singles
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riggs, Sam
American country singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Florida
Living people
People from St. Cloud, Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
Musicians from Austin, Texas
Country musicians from Texas
Year of birth missing (living people)
Singer-songwriters from Texas