Trapper Schoepp & The Shades - Run, Engine, Run

Milwaukee's reigning roots rockers TRAPPER SCHOEPP & THE SHADES release "Run, Engine, Run" on SideOneDummy Records. Trapper Schoepp has the ear of a troubadour, the eye of a journalist and the heart of a young poet. He began writing songs at a tender age with startling facility, distilling rock, folk and country traditions into tunes that are at turns spirited and melancholy. Themes ranging from pride of place, love and adventure shine with surprisingly sophisticated metaphors for a songwriter so young. "Run, Engine, Run" won't be out of place filed next to other artists distinguished for their early talent like Justin Townes Earle, Ha Ha Tonka and Lucero. TRAPPER SCHOEPP & THE SHADES offer this album as a love letter to their beloved home state of Wisconsin. Like his namesake M*A*S*H surgeon Trapper John, the 22-year-old Wisconsin songwriter found himself prepping for surgery a month before recording his band's third and latest album, "Run, Engine, Run", the result of a gnarly BMX bike crash 6 years earlier. Fortunately, his mother gave him a guitar after the accident and Trapper was able to turn his experiences on the operating table at the MayoClinic (for spinal decompression surgery) into songs like the Stones-flavored rocker, "Pins and Needles." TRAPPER SCHOEPP & THE SHADES is comprised of Trapper on lead vocals and guitar, brother Tanner on bass and vocals, drummer Jon Phillip (Tommy Stinson, Limbeck), and lead guitarist Graham Hunt. Daniel McMahon (Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons, Cameron McGill) produced ,Run, Engine, Run" and contributed keyboard during the sessions. Grammy-award winning engineer Geoff Sanoff (Fountains Of Wayne, Green Day, Nada Surf) mixed the album. The 12 well-crafted tunes on ,Run, Engine, Run" describe the everyday triumphs and tragedies of Midwestern life. "As a rock n' roll band, we play music that has absorbed a whole range of stylistic overtones," Trapper says of the musicality he's after with the help of his band, The Shades. "In a sound bite world, it's crucial to regard certain music not as a static art, but one that transcends tidy categorization. A radio station once said our music is s much Pavement as Parsons.' I thought that was telling, because this album has a little bit of everything - rock, country, power-pop, even some punk." Similar Artist: The Avett Brothers, Old 97's, The Replacements, Justin Townes Earle, Ryan Adams, Jakob Dylan, Whiskeytown Style: Rock