Teresa Trull

Teresa Trull (born June 20, 1954) is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina.

She played in rock & roll groups in the early 1970s on the East Coast and Southern United States.

At age nineteen, Trull relocated to New York City.

While she was living in New York, some friends of Trull's sent a tape of her music to Olivia Records, then located in Los Angeles, California.

Olivia was a fledgling women-only record company, devoted to recording music by women, for women, and about women.

The Olivia collective was interested in recording Trull, but had other projects in the works.

They encouraged Trull to move to LA, and gave her a job in the company's packing and shipping department until her recording could take place.

Afterwards, she was named as one of the organization's "new executive staff members".

She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album The Ways a Woman Can Be released on Olivia Records in 1977.

She has recorded two albums with Barbara Higbie and one with Cris Williamson.

She has toured and recorded with Bonnie Hayes, David Sanborn, Andy Narell, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Alex DeGrassi, Joan Baez, Linda Tillery, Cris Williamson, Holly Near, and Tracy Nelson.

She has performed all over the world, from Puerto Rico to Egypt, and Costa Rica to Greece.

Trull has also worked as a songwriter, with The Whispers among others.

She was twice nominated for Best Producer of an Independent Album by the New York Music Awards.

Trull was raised part-time on a chicken farm and part-time in Durham, North Carolina.

Her parents always struggled financially, with her father living in a trailer at the corner of two highways.

Trull refers to her father's family as "hillbillies"; her father didn't leave the mountains of Tennessee until he was 25 years old.

She spent a lot of time in her youth playing in the woods by herself, for example imagining herself as an Irish battle queen in full regalia which became the subject of a song later in her life.

She developed a love of horses and other animals, riding horses as young as age three.

Trull sang in churches as a child, which served as her initial introduction to music.

Later in life she ventured into folk and rock music, but as a teenager her passion was singing gospel music in church.

Trull left home at age sixteen, after her mother died.

During high school, she played guitar in a band.

At a school talent show, Trull substituted on vocals for an ill bandmate on a day that a rock band was in attendance.

Soon afterwards, Trull started attending Duke University on a full scholarship to study chemistry and intended to become a researcher.

She quickly became disillusioned with what she witnessed in research labs, so four weeks into her first year of college when members of Ed's Bush Band asked her to tour with them, she jumped at the chance to earn a living by singing.

Trull's first album with Olivia was The Ways A Woman Can Be released in 1977.

It was Olivia's fifth LP release and two singles were released as well.

The album's style is primarily folk-rock with R&B, gospel, and country influences, and contains several songs with overt lesbian and/or feminist lyrics, such as "Woman-Loving Women" and "Don't Say Sister (Until You Mean It)."

Six of the album's eight songs were composed by Trull, most of them written when she was between the ages of 16 and 20.

Also in 1977, Olivia released the compilation album Lesbian Concentrate in response to Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade.

Two Trull performances were included on the LP: "Prove It On Me Blues" (composed by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey) and "Woman-Loving Women" (composed by Trull).

Olivia released a second Trull LP in 1980 titled Let It Be Known.

This album also contains overtly lesbian and feminist lyrics ("There's A Light" and "Every Woman"), but the musical styles are funk, jazz, and pop.

Guest musicians included some well-known artists from within the women's music community, such as Julie Homi, Linda Tillery, Ellen Seeling and Jean Fineberg from the group Deuce, as well as mainstream artists such as Sheila E. on drums and percussion.

The LP generated some controversy within the lesbian-feminist community because two of the songs were co-written by Trull and a man, Ray Obiedo.

Prior to this LP, all Olivia recordings were completely women-only projects, including artists, composers, and technicians.

The LP's cover was criticized by some because Trull was wearing make-up in the photograph and there were accusations that Olivia intentionally put sexually-oriented subliminal messages on the cover of the LP.

The criticism of Let It Be Known from within the lesbian community contributed to the resignation of the Olivia staffer who was the graphic designer of the cover.

The recording was also criticized by some for being too commercial in its sound, with one reviewer going so far as to call it a "dull collection of every slick disco cliché."