Trapper Schoepp Returns to White Lilac

After a wildly received first appearance at White Lilac, Milwaukee singer-songwriter Trapper Schoepp returns for another intimate evening in a room he himself called an “Instant Classic!”

We were rather fond of him, too.

Schoepp has built a remarkable career as one of Wisconsin's most distinctive songwriters: a sharp-eyed storyteller whose music moves effortlessly between folk, Americana and gloriously restless rock & roll.

His résumé includes one particularly extraordinary footnote: he shares a songwriting credit with Bob Dylan. In 2018, Schoepp discovered lyrics Dylan had written but never recorded in 1961 and composed music for them. Dylan approved the collaboration, and “On, Wisconsin” was officially published with Dylan and Schoepp as co-writers—making Schoepp the youngest musician to share a songwriting credit with the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter.

His acclaimed 2023 album Siren Songs was recorded at Johnny Cash's legendary Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, further connecting Schoepp to the American songwriting tradition that has informed his work from the beginning.

His newest album, Osborne, pushes somewhere altogether different. Produced by Mike Viola (Andrew Bird, Dawes) and Tyler Chester (Jackson Browne, Madison Cunningham), the record turns Schoepp's experiences with addiction, recovery and chronic pain into some of the most personal music of his career—surrounded by vintage drum machines, synthesizers and distorted guitars with echoes of Springsteen, Suicide and Black Sabbath.

Over the years, Schoepp has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and shared stages with artists including The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks, Old 97's, Frank Turner, Laura Jane Grace, Three Dog Night and Alejandro Escovedo.

And the critics have noticed:

“Rootsy, cinematic rock that charms as it soars.”
— NPR Music

“Story songs that explore and explode the conventions of rock and roll.”
— PBS

“A master storyteller.”
— Huffington Post

“Charming 100% Americana.”
— Rolling Stone France

“One of the greatest Americana talents in a long time.”
— Country.DE

But credentials only explain part of why we're bringing Trapper back.

The first time he played White Lilac, something clicked. The songs, the stories, the audience and the intimacy of the room came together exactly the way a live performance should. Trapper felt it, too—afterward describing White Lilac as an “Instant Classic!”

So, naturally, we had to do it again.

Come see an internationally touring songwriter, a Bob Dylan collaborator and one of Wisconsin's finest musical storytellers up close, in a room built for exactly this kind of artist.

Trapper Schoepp returns to White Lilac.

We couldn't be happier about it.