Bar Lights EP is out now! I gotta give it up for all my collaborators and co-conspirators for this record… @jmmyoh as always holding it down on bass, @jrmillerproject adding piano and accordion from back in chicago, @iantaylorsutton giving angelic pedal steel perfection, Sarah Parker on fiddle, @josephanthonycanas my right hand man on lead guitar and harmonies, @azaria.mendoza & @sabrinazahran for vocals, @bromf_bunnies for piano, and @pentagramwookie for the logo and cover art, @devinjbegley for photos. Special thanks @alexiannaccone for being a stepper & holding me down on live steel. I’m so grateful for all the steppers, far and wide, for making memories and songs with me!
WYOMING is live! Bandcamp link in Bio!
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The Story of Wyoming
2 1/2 years ago i came to a fork in the road. That fork was a traffic stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming that wound me up in jail. Facing 2 felonies, i had to spend all i had to afford a defense that got me out of serving time, and wound up with 2 years of probation.
Before that, when i was sitting in the cell not knowing what my fate would be, i looked at my life, as one does in that circumstance, and asked myself some hard questions. Even before fate put me in shackles i had already locked myself up in many ways. At that time i hadn't been writing songs with lyrics for a couple years, just making beats and playing drums. that inner voice was gone or i had stopped listening to it. With nothing to hear in the jail cell besides my own inner voice, i started feeling out songs i wanted to write when i got the chance.
When i got home to San Francisco i set about the task of making an album. All i knew was it was going to be called Wyoming, and i also knew i needed to learn some more recording skills if i was going to be happy with self-producing it. So i took classes at the city college for sound design and engineering, and a private class on sound healing. All the while writing and recording demos of potential songs.
Each track on this album was recorded at least 3 times fully and scrapped. Theres another 15-20 songs that were cut along the way as well. I got lost in the weeds and had to take a break for a month or two along the way. i went thru the full emotional labyrinth of creation and destruction making this record and finding my voice again. I got such good encouragement and collaboration along the way, Im so grateful for this album to be completed, and the new beginning it represents. Today i am officially off probation, and i get to release the most special album i have ever made!
Special Thanks to Max Weber for the Album Art. Nikkôel Keiffer for the photos, Liz Crump for layout design, JR Miller for recording piano parts all the way out in Chicago for me, and jojo, jimmy o, Leo, and Kevin Thomas for making this project come to life!
Hanging w the horses and flies and singing songs about rain. 🐴 🪰🌧️ Join me and the steppers tomorrow 4/11 @boozebros in VISTA - set times @emilylaliotis 7:45-8:15 @mydogjackband : 8:30-9:15
Caleb Pepp & The Steppers: 9:30-10:30
2025 Live shows & Lucy. Thankful for all my musical family, most of all my Bay Area homies! Thankful for some travel and a new start to ‘26 in socal. 💗
Wrapping up a month of travels with my bro jojo and Lucy. Did some paintin, recordin, honky tonkin, movin, American dreamin. all the sweet friends and memories and landscapes I’ll stay thinkin bout ♥️ fuck buccees
“Rode Hard and Put Away Wet” shot by @wildcatstudiosescondido - check out the full song on their YouTube 🐎 💦 this song is on the new record coming out in February!
The past month - SF - EP release - move to Vista - SF - last shows w Country Risqué - Reno - offbeat fest - SF - painting jobs - Nevada city - record full length at dream cabin - back to Vista. So much fun boppin around, excited and ready to hunker down and mix this new record, hang with family, and get some musical wheels movin down here in SoCal
“Where’d You Go?” Written by JoJo Pepp performed 8/30 @theploughandstars in San Francisco. Shout out to my rippin band, 2 of which didn’t make it in the shot because of my amateur camera angle 😛 @azaria.mendoza on bass and backups @alexiannaccone on pedal steel, @josephanthonycanas on lead guitar, and Sarah Parker on violin. Shoutout @zeekus_maximus for running the sound that night.
