This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Respected American singer-songwriter David Olney said sorry to fans before he died during a performance in Florida. The 71-year-old was mid-song when he “stopped, apologised and shut his eyes”, said musician Amy Rigby, who was performing alongside him at the 30A Songwriters festival in Santa Rosa Beach.

Rigby said: “He was very still, sitting upright with his guitar on, wearing the coolest hat and a beautiful rust suede jacket … I want the picture to be as graceful and dignified as it was, because it at first looked as if he was just taking a moment.”

Olney’s fellow musicians, doctors present in the audience, and paramedics unsuccessfully attempted to revive the singer. His publicist believes he died of an apparent heart attack.

NPR critic Ann Powers described Olney’s death as a “major loss to the Nashville songwriter community”.

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Olney was born in Rhode Island in 1948. He moved to Nashville in 1973 and formed a band called the X-Rays, who recorded two albums in the 1980s. As a solo artist, he released more than 20 albums. Artists including Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Earle and Steve Young have covered his music.

The late songwriter Townes Van Zandt wrote the liner notes for Olney’s third album, Roses, released in 1991. “Any time anyone asks me who my favourite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney,” he wrote. “Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard – and that’s true. I mean that from my heart.”

Olney is survived by his wife Regine, son Redding and daughter Lillian.