David Luning was studying film scoring at the Berklee College of Music when he first heard the music of John Prine. As Luning recalls, “A couple of friends invited me over to share some songs at their apartment, and that was the first time I’d ever really listened to Americana music or folk or country or whatever you want to call it. They showed me John Prine, and it just resonated with me so much. I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is what I have to do with my life.’ I just figured it out in that moment.” He subsequently dropped out of school and took to the road as a troubadour, performing at open mics and eventually opening for Dave and Phil Alvin, Jackie Greene and other artists.

On February 3, 2017 HWY 61 Music will release Luning’s second album, Restless. Today we premiere “Gonna Forget About You” from the forthcoming release. Luning tells Relix, “Originally, this song was actually going to be a happy party song… ‘Gonna shine my shoes and go out on the town’… But I never finished it in that vein. A little while later, when I was in a low place, I revisited this song and rewrote it from the perspective of a man who is trying to convince himself that he is moving on, though it is clear that he hasn’t.”