A Walk in the Park

Any guitarist surfing the Web has likely come across the guitar wizardry of Greg Koch, often as he’s showing off what a guitar you can’t afford sounds like when someone much better than yourself plays it. Koch is a musician’s musician. So when John Sieger—the singer and songwriter for the Milwaukee-based Semi-Twang and whose songs have been covered by Dwight Yoakam, Robbie Fulks, and Flaco Jimenez—bumped into Koch at a local coffeeshop on Labor Day weekend 2012, he took Koch up on his offer to work together. Despite living just miles apart in Wauwatosa, Wis., the duo worked primarily over the Internet, with Koch sending instrumental tracks packed with unusual chords for singer/songwriters over to Sieger, who ended up writing more like a storyteller as a result. “Louise at the Pawn Shop” takes a humorous shot at the murder-ballad genre. “Country Boy” and “I Wish It Was September” capture the feel of vintage soul tunes done over with folk, blues, and country touches. It’s a perfect match.