Trapper Schoepp ‘Rangers & Valentines’ Release Party

Trapper Schoepp has befriended a strange and diverse cast of characters during his 20+ years. That small army of rogues and romantics, drifters and dreamers, soldiers and schemers populate his songs. He got attention with his critically-acclaimed 2012 debut showcase, Run Engine, Run, alongside 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.” The Minnesota-born, Wisconsin-based tunesmith and teller of tales (both tall and true), returns with his second effort Rangers & Valentines.

On Rangers & Valentines, Schoepp defies the limitations of the standard-issue Americana platter, 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. With special guests Riverside Horns, Dusty Heart and Cabin Essence. Saturday, May 21, 2016. 8:00pm. $10.00, 21+.