Xtra Mile Recordings and Milwakee-based troubadour Trapper Schoepp are proud to announce the release of the singer-songwriter’s second full-length album, Rangers & Valentines, out on 1 April 2016. You can preorder the album from our digital shop or on download via iTunes now.
The video for the track 'The Ballad of Olof Johnson' – which is also the instant grat track for all preorders – has been premiered on AV Club. Watch the video here.
It's an enjoyable animated clip inspired by the wildly popular 1970s computer game The Oregon Trail, The song relays the family legend of Trapper’s Swedish immigrant ancestor, Olof Johnson, and how he survived his first winter in America as he headed west via covered wagon. There is a companion website to tell the harrowing full story at OlofJohnson.com.
Having toured with the likes of The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks and The Old 97's in the US, Trapper will be coming to the UK and Europe in support of Ranger & Valentines, on a three-week run supporting Jesse Malin. Full dates listed below.
Produced by pop polymath and Raconteurs member Brendan Benson at his Readymade Studios in Nashville, Rangers & Valentines finds the teller of tales (both tall and true) handling vocals, guitar and harmonica. On the recording, Schoepp is aided by an array of estimable musicians including his brother, songwriting partner and musical-foil-since-birth, Tanner Schoepp (providing bass guitar and vocal harmonies), Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady), John Davis (Superdrag), the McCrary Sisters, and even comedian and WTF podcaster Marc Maron chips in on background vocals and lead guitar.
Trapper Schoepp is a young man who has befriended a strange and diverse cast of characters during his 24 years. That small army of rogues and romantics, drifters and dreamers, soldiers and schemers populate his songs, their tragedies and comedies, their lives and deaths recalled in his finely-etched musical vignettes. Rangers & Valentines follows his critically-acclaimed 2012 debut showcase, Run Engine, Run, with his band The Shades. The LP earned notices in Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and Paste, with the folks at Huffington Post calling him a “master storyteller” and PBS hailing his work as "story songs that explore and explode the conventions of rock and roll."
On the new album, Schoepp defies the limitations of the standard-issue Americana platter by hopping genres – you’ll hear lots of brass, backing singers and B-3 – as the songs build to delirious musical highs. His narratives, meanwhile, find subjects in the narrow margins of society, the strange twists (literal and metaphorical) in the weather, and the vagaries of a troubadour’s transient life, with lyrics that flash a lacerating wit and humanist streak that’s at the core of his craft.
Tracklisting:
1. Mono Pt. II
2. Tornado Alley
3. Ogallala
4. Ballad of Olof Johnson
5. Talking Girlfriend Blues
6. Settlin’ or Sleepin’ Around
7. Lost Cowboy
8. For Jonny
9. Don’t Go
10. Dream
Tour Dates (18 February – 12 March Supporting Jesse Malin)
FEBRUARY
18 Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
19 Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall
20 Edinburgh, UK @ Electric Circus
22 Glasgow, UK @ King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
23 Manchester, UK @ Sound Control
24 London, UK @ Dingwalls
25 Brighton, UK @ Green Door Store
27 Leffinge, Belgium @ Café de Zwerver
28 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Sugar Factory
29 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Pumphuset
MARCH
01 Oslo, Norway @ John Dee
02 Stockholm, Sweden @ Bar Brooklyn
04 Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow
05 Berlin, Germany @ Auster-Club
06 Munich, Germany @ Orangehouse
07 Cantú, Italy @ All’una e Trentacinque Circa
08 Brescia, Italy @ Latteria Molloy
10 Madrid, Spain @ Wurlitzer Ballroom
11 Barcelona, Spain @ LA2
12 Valencia, Spain @ Loco Club
16-20 Austin, TX @ SXSW
APRIL
01 Milwaukee, WI @ Anodyne (album release)
03 Muscatine, IA @ River’s Edge Gallery
facebook.com/trapperschoepp /Twitter @trapperschoepp / trapperschoepp.com