Happy One Year In St. Pete

Happy one year as a St. Petersburg resident! Still beaming from the Dunbrew Spring Beer Jam; I was able to stop in Saturday night and catch the Joe Marcinek Band do their thing. And it was his birthday! Hard to believe that my first time going to Dunedin Brewery was last year when Displace opened for Marbin. April 27, 2022. I’ve since pulled up at Dunedin Brewery so many times, as an artist and performer, Snake Bite Wings and Vinny’s Chicken Wrap are elite. Apricot Peach Ale is pretty sweet.

I’ve been settling in well, I’m still meeting people who’ve been in the scene for a while; it’s a big network of music fans and helpful people. So awesome to be a part of a community where Chuck Smalling of Funk Eye Media gets supported by the scene so he can continue doing what he loves to do. Go here and give to this awesome Media Man.

I’m settling into the projects I’m in, settling into my home; I think now is a good time to start working on some more original music. It’s been about two years since I released The Best Of D Truth Tuesdays and three years since Departure. If you haven’t heard any of my solo stuff, do yourself a favor and go dig in now. Those who know and have been wondering when more is coming, it’s finally happening. A solo record WILL come out this year, please stay tuned for the date! I’ve only gotten better in all aspects of life; I’m excited to hear what’s gonna come out. I’m in a really good place right now. : )

Happy one ear in St. Pete to me, and I’ll catch y’all at some of these shows comin’ up!

Upcoming Shows

Terra Fermata - 4/1
Dunedin - 4/7

Crowbar - 4/8

Grants Lounge - 4/20

Jamming On A Cruise!

Dope Polaroid from Alan of Unk-AL and The Amazingly Mediocre; Disco Sunrise jams

Sneaking in a blog at the end of Black History Month, I got to say—this is going to be a fantastic one. I’m gonna get right to it— Jam Cruise 19 was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Getting my first engineering job, traveling to Munich with the homies, Santo Domingo speaking Spanish with locals, first skydive, Jam Cruise 19. Go get your tickets for the next one (Jam Cruise 20 pre-book link).

But First, Groundup Music Fest 2023!

GROUNDUP 2023

I nearly did not go to GroundUp Music Fest despite having an absolute blast last year. GroundUp Music fest was Feb 3-5; Jam Cruise was Feb 6-12. I decided to ensure that I was at church this weekend; but a friend wanted a ride to to a passport appointment to prep Jam Cruise. A good excuse to simply go to the fest. So glad I did. New friends and new music. Of course, Snarky Puppy always brings it, but:

Silvana Estrada - This woman has a voice of an angel. She definitely put on for Veracruz, Mexico. A truly gifted voice she has

Attacca Quartet - bruh, they are splendid. Beautiful to see how well they play together

Can’t Wait For Perfect - Bob Reynolds Guitar Band
Deep, deep groove. Effortless, groove, smooth and adventurous

I’m not missing any GroundUp music fests ever. Late night sets at the Faena were amazing. Such a beautiful place. A wonderful warmup for Jam Cruise!

JAM CRUISE 2023

Never been on a cruise before. Ever in life. First one! I can’t imagine a better cruise. Though the food on this cruise was pretty average. It was ‘almost’ delicious. If I had any complaints, there’s one small on there. But the rest of it was the greatest experience possible! So great, I’ve pre-booked for next year. ;)

There was so much music! I didn’t see one bad set of music. Everyone was phenomal. My most phonemonenalist though: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, The Fearless Flyers, and my favorite of the favorites, Butcher Brown.

Fearless Flyers with Lettuce Horns

Karl’s Denson’s Tiny Universe - Savage x Caravan, love it when the old and new comes together

Butcher Brown - Triple Trey

JAMS

There was a lot of great music that weekend, and Displace was a part of it!

Chris slayin with The Sweet Lillies

Displace and Brian from DIAP blowing Oteil Burbridge’s mind with Daft Punk elevator funk

It was such an amazing time. I got to meet a handful of pro musicians, make a ton of new friends all over the world, and was dipped into a well of inspiration. It’s hard to put all of the awesomeness into words, so take these pics! Shout out to Emily for capturing a lot of wonderful moments!

Sunrise Salutation - Day 1

Sunrise Salutation - Day 2 feat. Tommy Shugart and Josh of SunSquabi. Yeah, I’m a fan of double bass jams after this Jam Cruise!

Jam Weebs

Mardi Gras awesomeness

Displace rocking the Jam Room!

Beavers preparing to damn the elevators full of funk

Blisters from playing double bass really, really, really hard. Don’t worry, I’m okay now.

Our Jam Cruise sets even generated a bit of press! Check out this write up on Displace at musicfestnews.com!

Amazing. Jammed with George Porter, Jr., rapped to random people all over the boat, and even gambled a bit of money with the homies. I couldn’t really ask for a better time. If you’re thinking about going, think no more. Simply do it. I’ll see you next year. Shout out to all of the Jam Cruise family, Dogs In A Pile, Sweet Lillies, Zach from the Partygrass Boys (fam funks that double bass), Emily for taking amazing pics, the Displace crew, and all the other wonderful people I had a chance to create some fire memories with! Happy Jam Cruise!

Next UP

Friday March 3rd, Displace - Celtic Ray, Punta Gorda
Saturday March 4th, Supporting Colleen Orender - Catherine Hickamn Theater, Gulfport

Hope to see y’all. Much love.

- D Truth

2023, The Year of D Truth

Glowup

Happy 2023, everybody! It’s been a great start to the year. After narrowly missing the blizzard in Chicago this Christmas, spreading the joy of mac n’ cheese, visining mom and brother, I’m back in the Sunshine State and jamming.

New Year’s Eve was solid with Seth Campbell and Devin Constrant at Caddy’s John’s Pass. I heard some of the best bagpipe playing for Irish New Year at (7PM Florida time). Haha the bagpipes stopped the gig; it was amazing and awkward, but I loved it all the same.

New Year’s Day, I jammed with the Tony Tyler band at No Resolutions. A fantastic set that Mommy Mary gave me so many hugs in appreciation for. Tony is a bad dude; finally some of the music we recorded at Capricorn is coming out. He’s definitely born to do music, he lives it. It’s beautiful to see him get back in his groove!


Displace at the Hard Rock was amazing; we’ll be at Dunedin brewery tonight, 9-12. I’m so ready to bring out some of the new tunes we’ve been working on since before the holiday. Lots of great momentum going into our end of the month weekend run that’ll take us to Jacksonville, Asheville, and Atlanta. So pumped! Still, Displace has so much more potential; it’s been fun aligning all of our lives to give ourselves to the band. The music comes easy, the practice, arguments, clash of personalities is challenging. That’s how you know you’re really pushing yourself. When you bump up against some resistance. And we’re handling it like pros.

I’ve been really excited about getting back to a consistent practice regimen. Shout out to the new roaddog Kenny Goolsby; he’s really encouraged to remain diligent about practice. I feel fresh. Relearning Marcus Miller, Jaco, and Return To Forever; I’m gaining my college muscle memory back. If you thought I was dope at bass in 2022, get ready to be floored in 2023! I’m growing, and I love it.

I got projects on deck:

• D Truth The Professional is releasing a solo album in 2023; I hear y’all loud and clear!

• A grunge revival trio in the works

• Bass lessons are officially happening

• Playing at a baptist church come next week

Life is awesome and I’m blessed to be here. RIP to poppy and Jeff Beck. 2023 is already my year; it’s already declared. Make it yours too.

Peace,

D Truth

Refocused - One Month Until "Accidental" Release

So much has happened lately…

It all gets to go back to the music…

All right, one blog a month. not a terrible pace… keep it up…

What’s goin on people? Lots has been going on. Some not so great, it’s been one hell of a month. A couple of awesome festivals, a couple of bands I won’t be playing in anymore. An awesome album on the way. Let’s go ahead and break it down!

When We Were Young 2022

Yes, I survivded Emo Fyre Fest 2022. The highly anticipated and scrutinized emo rock festival, When We Were Young Fest, started out with a devastating cancellation on the first or three days. I had one of those Saturday, Oct 22 tickets, and I and my two homies were devastated. We were getting ready, jamming Armor For Sleep when we here the news. We took to Freemont street with sad emos some of which traveled half the globe to experience this fest only to be stop by high winds. Though, many bands tried to pull together and throw last minute shows at random hotels and restaurants around Vegas. Airports playing 3OH!3. Ubers blasting Hawthone Heights, casinos jamming Taking Back Sunday. Though we didn’t get to rage Saturday at the fest, Vegas was still filled with the spirit of emo fans. Vegas was emo. Weird but fun lol.

Fortunately, we were able to snag a Sunday tickets due to friends of friends calling at the last minute! Happy ending! It was amazing. Good food, reasonable bathroom lines, and all the bands as advertised. Merch line was four hours long, a huge problem. Also, the sound for every stage wasn’t great; Dashboard Confessional didn’t get mixed well at all. However, Bring Me The Horizon, Paramore, A Day To Remember and MCR all killed. Got a couple good pics and vids. Check out Omega Mart too. Wild.

These ducks we were gifted are about to drop the dopest hardcode album this year!

MCR set intro - I’m Not Okay

Hulaween 2022

Now for a festival that I definitely will be back too. Hulaween 2022, you are missed already! Amazing. One weekend after after WWWY, I was back into the groove. 4 days of camping at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park having my mind blown by Cheese, CloZee, Louis The Child (best set, mind blown), Wednesday Night Titans, Blaque Dynamite, Lettuce, J.I.D! J.I.D really raps. It was amazing to spend some time with good people and good vibes all around at the Suwannee Horror Disco Show.

This was my first Hula and I hope to be back as a performer soon! Definitely inspired to get in the shed and practice. Shout out to Ajeva and Anthill, some homies’ set I was able to catch.

Seth Campbell

Now for the not so great. If you haven’t heard, the Seth Jam that was being held every other Wednesday night is not being held every Tuesday night. I have a conflict on Tuesdays; thus, I won’t be hosting the jam any longer. End of an era. Seth, Grindfather, and I really have bonded since we started hosting at the top of 2022. Lots of chemistry developed with those guys, fun times, even a Jannus Live show! Mad props to the work that was put in and I wish it the best! Hopefully, one of these Tuesdays, I can stop in and say what’s good. Much love.

Goldenera

Last but not least, Goldenera. As you may or may not know, I’m no longer in Goldenera. A couple members in the band had issues; it turned out that this was not a resolvable problem. One month ago, at Oktobeerfest, this band had one of the best shows ever. Momentum was building, thank you everybody for all of the good feedback you gave on what was going on with this project.

I came out into the scene looking to really lock in with a group to create some original music. There’s a lot of jam and blues in the Tampa Bay scene, but hip hop and live music is right up my alley. Loving The Roots, RH Factor, Snarky Puppy, Common, Tribe, Mac Miller; I didn’t think I could get so close to making some music exactly like my most favorite ever. We worked hard on an album that’ll likely never be released. Most painfully, we had a couple rehearsals in which we effortlessly demoed 6 or 7 instrumentals that would be the foundation for a more Roots hip hop sound than the rap-rock fusion that Goldenera had been doing. I’d say the band was becoming more and more hip hop as time went on. Finding the sound.

Now that I sit back to think on it and process, it really does suck that it ended like this. I hate feeling like I wasted time and potential. But it’s only a waste if nothing was learned. Friends, make sure that you love what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. You’re not going to make money and become famous with someone you don’t get along with. Making music is easy, but being there for bandmates when their down, going through challenges—personal, financial, health; you have to be around people who you’re willing to go to bat for. And have a band agreement.

End of a Goldenera, no hard feelings. It was dope. Best to everyone involved. Be excellent to each other.

Looking Forward

So where do we go from here? Displace’s 3rd album, “Accidental” comes out Dec. 10. I get to get back to making some solo hip hop again. It’s time. That time is always well spent. If you haven’t heard that, check on it while I prepare some new heat.

Departure EP - Spotify

The Best Of D Truth Tuesdays - Spotify

Much Love,

D Truth