Chris Cagle
When he was four years old, Chris Cagle moved from Louisiana to the
outskirts of Houston, where he grew up. He began taking guitar lessons
at six, but gave them up after a year. He took piano lessons during
high school and returned to the guitar in his senior year. After high
school, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington, but
dropped out at 19 to pursue a musical career. He moved to Nashville in
1994 and struggled for five years. His earliest songs were published by
famed Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard, after which he landed a
publishing deal and placed some of his songs with David Kersh. He was
discovered by the assistant to the president of Virgin Records
Nashville, whom he met in a restaurant where he was working. Virgin
signed him and released his debut single, "My Love Goes on and On,"
which reached the country charts in July 2000, eventually peaking in
the Top 20. His first album, Play It Loud, followed in October. It
reached the country charts, and its track "Laredo" made the country Top
40. In 2001, Cagle switched from Virgin to Capitol Records (both are
subsidiaries of EMI), and his new label reissued Play It Loud in June
2001 with two bonus tracks. A self-titled album came in 2003, followed
by Anywhere But Here in 2005, which reached the Top 40. My Life's Been
a Country Song appeared in 2008.