Fellow performers at a music festival in the United States have described how a 71-year-old singer-songwriter died on stage mid-performance, describing his death as "easy and gentle as he was".
David Olney was performing at the 30A Songwriters Festival on Saturday in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida when he suffered "an apparent heart attack", according to a statement on the singer's website.
The Nashville-based performer and founder of The X-Rays was performing in a round with songwriters Amy Rigby and Scott Miller when he stopped the third song of his performance, apologised and shut his eyes.
"David was playing a song when he paused, said 'I'm sorry' and put his chin to his chest," Miller said in a post on his Facebook page.
"He never dropped his guitar or fell off his stool.
"It was as easy and gentle as he was."
Rigby said doctors in the audience attempted to revive the singer after Miller realised something was wrong.
"I just want the picture to be as graceful and dignified as it was, because it at first looked like he was just taking a moment," she wrote in a post on Facebook.
During his career, Olney recorded more than 20 solo albums and his songs were recorded by country music stars Emmylou Harris, Del McCoury and Linda Ronstadt.
He received praise for his work from music greats including Harris, Guy Clark, Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt — the latter once commenting "anytime anyone asks me who my favourite music writers are, I say 'Mozart, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney'."
Miller wrote that Olney's music would continue to inspire other songwriters.
"The world lost a good one last night," he wrote on Facebook.
"But we still have his work. And it still inspires. And always will."
Last week, founding member of The Wiggles Greg Page was hospitalised after having a heart attack and suffering cardiac arrest on stage during a performance in Sydney
