John Duggleby, an award-winning author of a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, made his professional performing debut at age five at the Sunset Supper Club in Muscatine, Iowa, singing, “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” after the piano man bribed him with a nickel.  After a hootenanny fling in a “baby Kingston Trio,” hegrew up as a percussionist playing everything from orchestra tympani to garage band rock and roll.  As an adult he learned guitar as a more benign living room alternative. 

Over the years John has labored in several underappreciated folk, 60s rock, Cajun, bluegrass and world music ensembles, but his main gig these days is playing
dozens of one-man shows a year for listeners of all ages, at venues ranging from food/drink emporiums, to senior centers, to libraries, to festivals (including Wisconsin State Fair, Taste of Madison, Willy Street Fair and Milwaukee’s Bastille Days).  His songbook ranges from Stephen Foster and George M. Cohan to the  Beatles
and Bruce Springsteen-- as well as his own material-- accompanied on guitar and a music store of other instruments. John also leads drum circles and kitchen
bands for groups including kids, seniors and disabled people. John’s first 2014 album Better Late Than Never and new 2019 double album Castaway can be heard at
https://soundcloud.com/duggleby.  His songs have been finalists in the Great American and Great River Folk Festival Songwriting Contest, and international www.SongoftheYear.com competition runner-up. John’s “Sunflowers (for Ukraine) was voted 2023 Folk/Alternative Song of the Year by the Madison Area Music Association (MAMA).

John was twice named MAMA’s Children’s Performer of the Year, and he has received 2 nd place for Singer/Songwriters in the Isthmus “Madison’s Favorites” reader’s poll. His most recent literary work is a children’s book on Louis Armstrong’s childhood.