{"id":67649,"date":"2026-06-29T22:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/scud-mountain-boys-guitarist-bruce-tull-dead-at-71\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:12:27","slug":"scud-mountain-boys-guitarist-bruce-tull-dead-at-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/scud-mountain-boys-guitarist-bruce-tull-dead-at-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Scud Mountain Boys Guitarist Bruce Tull Dead at 71"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tBruce Tull<\/a>, guitarist and pedal steel player for the Nineties alt-country outfit Scud Mountain Boys, has died. He was 71.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTull died on June 22 in Tulsa, Oklahoma after a brief illness, according to a statement shared with Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoe Pernice, frontman of Scud Mountain Boys, shared a tribute on Instagram<\/a> last week, writing, \u201cNo combination of words will ever accurately describe the beauty of Tull. Someday I\u2019ll try. But today Stephen [Desaulniers], Tom [Shea], and I are just hollowed by his passing. In our grief we send our love to Nancy, the entire Tull family and to all who loved Bruce and the music he made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTull was born and raised in Midwest City, Oklahoma, and was working on his PhD in economics at the University of Massachusetts \u2013 Amherst when he met his future bandmates in 1991. Originally known as the Scuds, the group started off playing pretty standard early Nineties alt-rock. But they got tired of hauling their gear around, and were enjoying the acoustic country tunes they played around the kitchen table at Tull\u2019s house much more.<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon, instead of bringing amps to shows, they were bringing their acoustic instruments, and the kitchen table, to recreate the experience for audiences. Their 1995 debut, Pine Box<\/em>, was recorded around the table, too, with Tull recording and mixing the live-to-four-track cassette tape. A follow-up album, Dance the Night Away<\/em>, was also released in 1995.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band garnered the attention of indie luminaries, with the Silver Jews\u2019 David Berman providing the liner notes to Pine Box<\/em>. \u201cI had begun seeing the Scud Mountain Boys around town with their Baltimore haircuts, the guitarist\u2019s guitarist carrying his trapdoor Springfield rifle, the progeny of the muzzle-loading French Charleville muskets that had whacked so many Redcoats around these hills,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI had heard it was the band\u2019s tradition to lay dinner on the table and then set the table on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScud Mountain Boys scored a record deal with Sub Pop, who released the band\u2019s most well-known album, Massachusetts<\/em>, in 1996. The album earned strong reviews and favorable write-ups, including a year-end blurb in Rolling Stone <\/em>that declared: \u201cThe real beauty of Massachusetts<\/em> \u2026 is not the dreamy melodies; it\u2019s the dark-edged, often downright bleak lyrics about obsession and disaffection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tMassachusetts<\/em> also featured the song \u201cLift Me Up,\u201d which received some attention after MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee covered it<\/a> during a show in Boston this spring.<\/p>\n

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