By Dustin Whitlock
dwhitlock@sctonline.net
Anse Rigby is a 2005 graduate of Forest High School and currently resides in Brandon. He is the son of Bill Rigby and the late Regina Rigby. Anse married Courtney Elkins in December of 2011, and they have two girls, Ella B. and Charlie Rigby.
Rigby is self-publishing an album titled, All Along, taken from the title of one of the tracks. Rigby’s album will be available for download on October 11 on itunes. Rigby said that the songs on his album are about the challenges of life and love.
Rigby is joined on the album by his sister, Ginny Ivy, singing on multiple tracks throughout the LP. Ivy is a 1998 graduate of Forest High School and currently lives in Raleigh.
All of the songs are written by Rigby with the exception of a John Denver chorus on one song. Rigby said of his album, “All of the songs on the record are original except for a chorus track from John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” John Denver was my mom’s favorite artist. She passed away in 2011 and I put this chorus on the record to honor my mom. She was my biggest fan and taught me about love, Jesus, and music. I will forever be grateful to her for believing in me.”
Rigby attended East Central Community College and then attended Mississippi University for Women, graduating in 2010 with his Associate’s Degree in Nursing. Anse proceeded to acquire his BA in 2011 and he plans to finish his Masters of Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Walden University in 2018.
Rigby is a full-time RN with St. Dominic’s Hospital. He said, “I have been there for seven and half years. I work in the Cardiovascular Surgery Department. I also lead worship for our contemporary service at St. Matthew’s UMC.”
When Rigby was in high school, he was in choir and Madrigals starting in the 9th grade. While at ECCC, he joined the show choir, Accents.
Rigby plays acoustic guitar. He said that it was his mother who was the catalyst for bringing the guitar into his life. “My senior year, my mom got me a guitar for Christmas. I didn’t ask for that guitar. I have no idea what she was thinking. But that one decision has changed my life forever. I immediately crossed the street to a friend’s house, Jess Dilley, and he showed me four chords and I have never looked back,” said Rigby.
Rigby explained that learning the guitar led to an acceleration of musical activities and eventually his first official performance. Rigby said, “Once I figured out a few chord progressions, I had the opportunity to start leading worship for our youth group. That’s where my passion for worship started. That lead me to take part in the BSU Praise Band when I was at ECCC and then lead for a college worship while I was living in Starkville and going to school at MUW. All the while, I was writing songs and playing them for friends. My first gig, outside of worship, was back at Forest High School to play the intermission of a Beauty Pageant with another Forest friend, Ryan Reeves.”
Rigby performed at the Wing Dang Doodle festival over the past weekend at Gaddis Park in Forest along with Jennifer Dilley of Forest. Anse said that Dilley is a vocalist with a band that he is a member of, Kingdom Fame, and that she approached him about joining her on stage at the WDD.
Rigby said, “As previously mentioned, I have lead worship for the past seven and a half years. About three years ago, myself and a few of my friends that also lead worship around central Mississippi, got together and started leading different youth/church events. We lead around seven to eight events a year. Kingdom Fame is the name of that band. Jennifer is a female vocalist/worship leader for the band. She approached me about playing some songs for the WDD and I gladly accepted.”
Rigby and Dilley performed songs at the festival that their band performs regularly.
Rigby said that his favorite musical genres are singer-songwriter albums, Americana, and 1990s alternative rock and country.
He said that his sister’s tastes in music helped shape his style. Rigby said, “I grew up listening to what my sister listened to. I knew all of the 1990’s country and loved it. I started listening to more 1990s-2000s alternative/pop/rock in high school — I gained my appreciation for the acoustic guitar when rock groups started stripping down their songs and just doing them with their acoustics. From that point, I started listening to mainly acoustic artists.”
Asked about his writing methods, Rigby said that lyrics and music can originate from many different places and may take different paths when fleshing them out. Rigby said, “Writing is not something that happens the same way every time. Sometimes I get an idea and formulate a song around it. Sometimes I have a melody in my head and write lyrics that I think work well with that melody. Most times it just happens when I am spent emotionally and just start playing chords and singing words. Feelings will come out and I just run with it.”
Rigby emphasized the importance of emotion for him as a writer and how it can be frightening to open the door to strangers as it leaves one vulnerable. “I just like to be as transparent as possible when I’m writing. I think authenticity is valued as a songwriter. That can be tough at times because it exposes you to rejection.”
