“It’s hard, and it’s supposed to be hard. If it was easy, I wouldn’t have needed to take these steps in the first place — in terms of sobriety and the album,” Trapper Schoepp tells Billboard of his new album, Osborne, out Friday (Sept. 19) on Blue Élan Records. The Wisconsin-raised singer-songwriter is usually sorted into the ‘Americana’ category and describes himself as a “folk artist” when talking to Billboard, but Osborne is a rock record in both spirit and sound, from its cover art (a flaming electric guitar enters his mouth) to its take-no-prisoners lyrics to the catharsis of his raw yet sweet voice. Even when Osborne dips into country or wraps with a hint of reggae, its songs rip – if only in the sense of ripping off a Band-Aid.

“I wanted to sing about the opioid epidemic as someone

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