5 songs, 2 bands, 1 big surprise: Trampled by Turtles and Dead Man Winter drop dueling EPs today

As if an unannounced EP by his internationally renowned acoustic band wasn’t enough of a surprise, Trampled by Turtles frontman Dave Simonett has one more unexpected present for fans this week: another EP of the same songs recorded by his locally beloved electric group Dead Man Winter.

The dueling Minnesota roots-music acts shared a joint project in the form of “Always Here” and “Always Now” — the former by Trampled, and the latter by DMW. Each of the five-song collections arrive Friday via streaming platforms, and limited-edition vinyl copies are also now available for pre-order via trampledbyturtles.com.

Word of the co-joined EPs only started getting out a few days ago when the bands’ social-media accounts began teasing them. No advance press or radio promotion was sent out. Believe me; we asked for it.

Simonett explained the thinking behind the twofer project in a Substack post that went up Wednesday.

“Most of the time when I start in on a new batch [of songs] I have some kind of idea of what I want to do with them,” he wrote. “This time, however, I was curious about trying the same group of songs with more than one project. I thought it would be an interesting process, anyway.”

Per Simonett’s account, Trampled took the first swing at the songs in a session at the famed Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls. Song titles include “You Never Let Me Down,” “Out of Time” and “On My Way Back Home.” The latter two tunes feature a special guest singer, too: country music vet LeAnn Rimes. How’s that for another surprise? This EP marks the sextet’s first release since its Jeff Tweedy-produced 2022 album “Alpenglow.”

Then it was Dead Man Winter’s turn. The quintet — which includes Trampled’s Tim Saxhaug on bass and acclaimed singer/songwriter Erik Koskinen on lead guitar — recorded its first release in seven years at Holly Hansen’s Salon Sonics studio in northeast Minneapolis.

Simonett summed up the results this way in his post: “I like both versions of these songs a lot. Both were done fairly live, as I’m wont to do, but I think they show their liveness in different ways.

“What I hope is that each version of each song reflects the people playing and recording it in each specific room on each specific day on this specific planet. Polaroids. Or, maybe more accurately, Polaroids run through Lightroom a bit.”

Trampled will hopefully lend a little more exposure to the project at its next Minnesota gig, which is a big one. The pickers will pair up with Avett Brothers at Xcel Energy Center on Aug. 24. No telling when DMW might play again, but the dead of winter is usually a good bet.