Trapper Schoepp at Forager Brewing Company

Schoepp and his band, The Shades, released their national debut, Run, Engine, Run, on SideOneDummy Records in September 2012. Rolling Stone premiered the album’s title track, Run, Engine, Run, on September 11. The song, a tribute to the Schoepps’ grandpa and his 1964 Mercedes Benz, was also featured on the NPR’s Car Talk, Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?.[1]

Since the album’s initial release on Good Land Records in November 2011, the band has toured alongside The Wallflowers, Old 97’s, The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Tommy Stinson, Social Distortion, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Frank Turner, Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons.

In 2016, the band signed to Xtra Mile Recordings and released their second album, Rangers and Valentines on April 1st. Relix declared it a “mini masterpiece” and it was named one of Billboard’s “Best of the Week.”

In 2017, Schoepp released Bay Beach Amusement Park – a six-song concept album based on the site of Elvis Presley’s favorite rollercoaster, the Zippin Pippin. The band commemorated the album with a performance of it at the amusement park in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as well as nationwide tours with Ha Ha Tonka and BoDeans. “The Scat” became the theme song for the Onion’s inaugural podcast “A Very Fatal Murder.”