Chris Cagle

Chris Cagle was born on November 10, 1968, in DeRidder, Louisiana. His family moved to the outskirts of Houston when he was four, so he was raised in Texas. By the time he was six, he began guitar lessons, but because his hands were too small to master the classical guitar he gave up after a while. During his high school years, he took piano lessons. In his senior year, Cagle began taking guitar lessons again because he received an Ovation acoustic guitar for Christmas.

After graduating from high school, Cagle attended The University of Texas at Arlington, but ended up dropping out because he was more interested in music. Chris spent most of his nights performing in several clubs in Texas and found himself skipping classes. He made up his mind in pursuing his career as a full time musician, which lead him to leave Texas and move to Nashville in 1994. He found himself working in a variety of jobs to be able to support his needs while he honed his skills as a songwriter and tried to get a record deal. He was able to meet American Hall of Fame country music songwriter Harlan Howard, who taught Chris how to write a true country song. His skills as a songwriter improved considerably and Howard was so impressed that he was the first to publish one of Cagle’s songs.

Cagle was also able to meet Dona Duarte, assistant to Scott Hendricks, president of Virgin Records Nashville. After Chris invited her to one of his recording sessions, she took the recording to Hendricks and Cagle soon landed a deal. His first single, “My Love Goes On And On”, was a smash hit. Capitol Nashville re-released Cagle’s debut album after Virgin closed its country division. The re-release of Play It Loud included the number one hit “I Breathe In, I Breathe Out”. The record was followed in 2003 by a self-titled album.