Trapper Schoepp Unveils 'Freight Train' Video

WATCH “FREIGHT TRAIN” HERE
PRE-ORDER PRIMETIME ILLUSION

Xtra Mile recording artist TRAPPER SCHOEPP has announced today’s premiere of “Freight Train,” the latest track from the Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter’s eagerly anticipated new album, PRIMETIME ILLUSION. 

Originally written and performed by San Francisco alt-rockers Sister Double Happiness, “Freight Train” – which powerfully chronicles the grim realities faced by those suffering with AIDS – is joined by a new companion visual. PRIMETIME ILLUSION arrives worldwide via Xtra Mile Recordings on January 25; pre-orders are available now.

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​Produced in Milwaukee by Patrick Sansone (Wilco, Robyn Hitchcock), PRIMETIME ILLUSION sees Schoepp reaching for his own place in the canon with a truly remarkable collection of character-driven songs and stories, a carefully etched series of sonic snapshots in which people we all know struggle to fulfill their own American dream. With its extraordinary melding of the personal and political, songs like “Drive-Thru Divorce” and “If All My Nines Were X’s” firmly place the Badger State troubadour amongst the long American continuum of singing storytellers, a pedigree and place on the family tree that inspires and drives him each and every new day.

Having spent the last half decade “getting home just in time to leave again,” playing countless dates and sharing stages with such like-minded Americana mainstays as The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks, and Old 97’s, Schoepp will celebrate PRIMETIME ILLUSION with a truly heroic 2019 tour schedule. The dates begin with a series of Midwestern headline shows, kicking off January 25 at Chicago, IL’s The Hideout and then visiting Minneapolis, MN, Fond du Lac, WI, Milwaukee, WI, and Davenport, IA. From there Schoepp will embark an epic tour of Europe and the United Kingdom alongside Skinny Lister, getting underway February 28 in Brighton, England and then making stops in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium before culminating at London’s Electric Ballroom on April 11. 

As if that weren’t enough, Schoepp will wrap up 2018 by teaming with his bassist brother Tanner Schoepp for a trio of year-end live dates, with shows at Evanston, IL’s Evanston Space (December 20), Madison, WI’s Barrymore Theatre (December 27), and St; Charles, IL’s Arcada Theatre (December 29). Additional North American dates will be announced soon. For complete details and ticket information, please visit trapperschoepp.com/#tour
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Amongst the many highlights of PRIMETIME ILLUSION is  “On, Wisconsin,” an extraordinary co-write with Bob Dylan, streaming now via Schoepp’s official YouTube channel (LINK). The track recently premiered via Rolling Stone alongside an exclusive Q&A with Schoepp detailing the song’s remarkable genesis. In addition, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Think-Make-Happen In Wisconsin recently unveiled a new mini-documentary in which Schoepp tells the story of co-writing “On, Wisconsin.” “Wisconsin Stories: Trapper Schoepp“ is streaming now.

LISTEN TO “ON, WISCONSIN“
WATCH “WISCONSIN STORIES: TRAPPER SCHOEPP“
 
“I think a lot about the folk process,” Schoepp says, “how things are passed down to the next generation and are reinvented and evolve. That’s really important to me, to keep the spirit of what someone might consider old new.
 
“Dylan, in his MusiCares speech a few years ago, made the point that his role in music is simply extending the line. That’s my whole M.O. as well. I want to push this music forward like my life depends on it. It’s all I have.”