Dylan Collab Just One Highlight Among Many on New Trapper Schoepp Album
Jim Shahen
Posted On January 25, 2019
Until recently,the only thing I knew about Trapper Schoepp came from a Rolling Stone article. The piece was about how he concocted a chorus and added a melody to an unfinished 1961 Bob Dylan track called “On, Wisconsin” for his new album Primetime Illusion. In the end, Schoepp credits the experience with helping him to getting his creative mojo working again and making the final LP possible.
My kneejerk reaction was to roll my eyes harder than Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones and assume the song, and by proxy the entire album, was some too-precious, hyper-pretentious affair. But you know what they say about assumptions, right?
Because on Primetime Illusion, Trapper Schoepp cuts loose and rocks with no frills. The 11 tracks on it are a mix of ragged garage rock and rough-and-tumble alt-country, tied together by an execution so flawless that it belies the struggles he faced in putting the album together.
So, let’s go back to “On, Wisconsin,” the final tune on the release. By arranging it as a dreamy country waltz, Schoepp takes lyrics that on their own aren’t particularly memorable or indicative of the wit that would later win Dylan a Nobel Prize and creates a whimsical little tribute to his home state in the process.
But the Dylan collab, while solid, isn’t what makes Primetime Illusion a standout album. It’s not even the best collaboration on it. That one would be “What You Do to Her,” a team-up with Nicole Atkins that takes on the perpetrators of sexual violence against women and calls on society at-large to do and be better.
It’s unadorned and sonically it packs a helluva wallop. This is true of the bulk of the material on Primetime Illusion. Whereas his 2016 release Rangers and Valentines featured horns and some lush arrangements and instrumentation, Schoepp eschewed that this go-round in favor of a leaner, more muscular approach. “Freight Train,” a cover of late ’80s alt-rockers Sister Double Happiness’ song about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has a pretty cool honky-tonk piano melody. But it’s Schoepp’s hoarse shout of a delivery and an absolutely crushing riff that drive the tune. And the fun “If All My Nines Were Xs” has a tasty little solo that gives it an extra oomph.
On song after song, Schoepp performs the material with a keen sense of purpose and hard-hitting delivery. The result is his strongest, most impactful album to date and a truly enjoyable listening experience, contrary to those aforementioned pre-listening assumptions.
