The days are rushing by as we approach the Dylan@80 event and its three days of conversation and exploration, all designed mark the artist’s eight extraordinary decades. Registration is open and the event will be run on the Microsoft Teams platform, which will allow us both to stream high-quality video and provide unique opportunities for participants to engage with one another before, during and after the conference.
As part the event, we are proud to announce that Trapper Schoepp has been added to the program and will join in a conversation with fellow singer-songwriter Emma Swift about how younger musicians view Dylan’s music and legacy. They will talk about everything from finding the poetry in Dylan’s work by recovering–and reinventing–his old songs as well as the craft of inventing lyrics and music along the legendary songwriter. The event will be moderated by music critic and writer Katie Moulton.
Emma Swift is an Australian-born songwriter, currently residing in the USA. A gifted singer inspired by Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, and a plethora of dead poets, her sound is a blend of classic folk, Americana, and indie rock. In August 2020, she released the critically-acclaimed “Blonde On The Tracks”, a Laurel-Canyon-inspired reimagining of some of her favorite Bob Dylan tunes on Tiny Ghost Records. The album received Best of 2020 accolades from Rolling Stone, Nashville Scene, No Depression, The Guardian, and more.
In 2019, Milwaukee’s Trapper Schoepp hit a songwriter’s jackpot: a co-write with Bob Dylan. And the circumstances were wildy serendipitous. On the day Dylan entered Columbia Studios in 1961 to begin recording his first studio album, he wrote a song about Wisconsin. The lyric sheet sat unseen with a former roommate, and was later unearthed and put up for auction at $30,000. Schoepp saw the story and seized the opportunity to set music to words. After Schoepp’s effort, he was granted Dylan’s approval to jointly publish the song. This 57-year-collaboration–“On, Wisconsin”–led to features in Rolling Stone and Billboard, an album called Primetime Illusion produced by Wilco’s Patrick Sansone, and nearly a hundred international tour dates.
Katie Moulton is a writer, editor, and music critic. Her audio memoir, Dead Dad Club, will be released
by Audible in May 2021. She has been a culture journalist for Voice Media Group newspapers since 2009 and was the Music Editor of Westword in Denver. She’s worked as a radio DJ, festival organizer, venue manager, and literary editor.