TMN STAFF
Back in his high school days, with one faithful roadie and one faithful Fender amp in tow, David Trull was a regular feature at the Roadhouse in Webster Groves, MO. Every Tuesday, the Roadhouse Bar and Grill would have local blues hero Alvin Jett onstage to lead a jam session. David headed to the Roadhouse, rain or shine, for three years’ worth of Tuesdays. On that stage, David struck his musical roots in the soil of the blues. His great loves at that time were The Allman Brothers and The Derek Trucks Band; he was known to laugh in rapture at the grinding, throaty “breathing” of Derek Trucks’ guitar.
Years later, at college, David found a different kind of treasure: he discovered The Milk Carton Kids. Their blend of eclectic, punchy songwriting and limpid melodies inspired him to write music more restrained, music more focused on lyrical power. He began by covering several of his favorites at an open mic night in the spring of 2013, where his rendition of “Michigan” was received with a standing ovation. Along with two friends, David formed a musical trio called Bourbon & Bitters. This act was the vehicle for him to try his hand at songwriting, and he wrote and performed over a dozen songs over the remainder of the semester, touring through Southern California in support of these new compositions. Upon graduation, he scraped up enough cash between graduation gifts and tips from local gigs and recorded his debut EP Sowing Season, which later became a popular add at Colleg Music Journal stations. Those songs are about beginnings, David says, which seemed like a proper theme for his first effort.
David, now home in his native St. Louis, is no longer at the beginning of things. He has completed his first full-length album, Coin Toss inspired by and composed during his hiking of the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route across France and Spain. He’s tasted some of life, and it’s a broad world, with many beautiful things in it; but at the same time, much is fragile and out of reach. The sweet certainties of childhood, which are so celebrated in Sowing Season, are harder to hold onto the further you go into the world we’ve inherited. The pain of losing those footholds will be on full display on his new album‐ but that shouldn’t surprise any of David’s devoted listeners. For a man with his feet in the blues, writing about loss, heartache, and the humor of it all is nothing less than second nature.