Trapper Schoepp, who’s been recording for more than a decade now, may have come to national attention in 2019 for helping Bob Dylan finally finish the long-lost song “On Wisconsin,” but the Milwaukee native sought influence from another musical giant for his latest, Siren Song.
Recorded at Johnny Cash’s legendary Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, TN, Schoepp and his band mates for this session recorded with instruments found around the cabin, including Cash’s 1930s Martin guitar and a Steinway piano that belonged to June Carter Cash. You can hear the reverence throughout the 12 songs that make up this record. It’s likely not lost on Schoepp, the link between longtime friends and collaborators Cash and Dylan.
The album opens on the impassioned “Cliffs of Dover,” an up-tempo roots rocker about a solider coming back home from the Iraq War and dealing with PTSD. The song was written in response to some of the stories Schoepp heard from vets from his work with the Milwaukee non-profit Guitars 4 Vets, an organization that provides guitars and lessons to veterans. Though the protagonist here is a vet of the Iraq war, it’s a refrain that’s bound to be felt by just about anyone who has seen combat.
While 2021’s May Day found Schoepp playing more piano than he usually does, Siren Song finds him relying more on guitar – his primary instrument for most of his records. And the acoustic guitar, delicately strummed (“Silk and Satan”) at times and elsewhere played with a building fury (“Devil’s Kettle”), is the centerpiece to many of the songs here. The lush Irish-sounding “Good Graces,” pairing the acoustic guitar with a dobro is almost ethereal. It also allows Schoepp’s striking vocals to soar above the music. That Irish influence can also be heard weaved throughout on songs like “Anna Lee.”
The record was produced by John Jackson, best known as a member of The Jayhawks, and Patrick Sansone, a member of Wilco, two bands whose influences can be heard throughout this record. In his bio, Schoepp says it’s important to him to be a link in the chain of folk singers before and after his time. Siren Songs shows just how strong that link can be while also allowing the singer to develop his own style and sound.
