[Cover photo credit to Joseph Cash]
Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter Trapper Schoepp has announced his new studio album Siren Songs, out April 21, 2023 via Grand Phony (US) / Rootsy (EU). Schoepp has also shared his new single “Cliffs of Dover,” a Roots-Rock song about an Iraq war veteran struggling with PTSD after returning home.
Schoepp will be embarking a U.S. tour beginning on March 23, 2023 in Lake Orion, MI and making stops in Washington, D.C., New York and more.
Schoepp explains:
PTSD has taken hold of an Iraq war veteran on ‘Cliffs of Dover. He can’t escape the sounds of bullets and is torn up inside and out, reeling from the trauma of a failed war. I wrote this in response to war stories heard through Milwaukee’s Guitars 4 Vets organization – a non-profit I’ve worked with that provides guitars and lessons to veterans in need. This song lends lines from the World War II anthem ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ by Vera Lynn. With that song and the recent international wars in mind, this song is sung as a call to peace and a remembrance of those we’ve lost.
Schoepp’s forthcoming album Siren Songs is steeped in traditional American and Irish Folk music while interpreting those traditions through a modern lens. Produced by John Jackson (The Jayhawks, Ray Davies) and Patrick Sansone (Wilco), the recording sessions for Siren Songs took place at Johnny Cash’s historic Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee where Schoepp and his collaborators recorded with instruments found on the ground. That included Cash’s 1930s Martin guitar and June Carter Cash’s Steinway piano and even an old railroad spike.
Schoepp became the youngest musician to share a co-writing credit with Bob Dylan on a long-lost song called “On, Wisconsin” in 2019. After coming across a previously unseen lyric sheet from Dylan’s early recording sessions, Schoepp seized the opportunity to put music to these words about his home state. Dylan approved to jointly publish the song, and there’s a connection made on the Siren Songs album cover that features the same pond where Cash would read and dispose of letters sent to him by Dylan.
U.S. Tour Dates:
3/23 – Lake Orion, MI – 20 Front Street
3/26 – Washington D.C. – Pie Shop
3/28 – Boston, MA – City Winery
3/29 – Cambridge, NY – Argyle Brewing Company
3/30 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Caffe Lena
3/31 – Freehold, NJ – Concerts in the Studio
4/2 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
4/14 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
4/15 – Madison, WI – Kiki’s House of Righteous Music
4/21 – Milwaukee, WI – Colectivo Backroom
4/22 – Berwyn, IL – Fitzgerald’s
U.K. and European Tour Dates Supporting Jesse Malin:
2/15 – Glasgow, UK – Stereo
2/16 – Manchester, UK -The Pink Room
2/17 – London, UK – The Garage
2/18 – Paris, France – La Boule Noire
2/19 – Utrecht, Netherlands – dBs
2/23 – Bergamo, Italy – Druso
2/24 – Ravenna, Italy – Bronson
2/25 – Mareno di Piave (TV), Italy – Corner Live
2/27 – Hamburg, Germany – Nochtspeicher
2/28 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Hotel Cecil
3/1 – Lund, Sweden – Mejeriet
3/2 – Stockholm, Sweden – Bar Brooklyn
3/3 – Oslo, Norway – John Dee
