Milwaukee songwriter and guitarist and Semi-Twang’s fearless leader John Sieger, and Milwaukee guitar ace and bon vivant Greg Koch have recently paired up to form a writing partnership. The result is 64 amazing, though hard-to-categorize songs. Luckily, many of them are perfect for the kind of small stage and rapt attention you find at Cafe Carpe. Ranging from the sweet and sentimental to the off-kilter and oddly funny, the songs show off Koch’s casual virtuosity and Sieger’s voice, which has developed a nice raspy warmth of late.

This is their public debut, but Greg and John have honed their act at a few private events and are up to the challenge! And you could be in on it from the start!

Prolific songwriter John has teamed up with many (including Michael Feldman of Whaddya Know?) to cowrite and perform- think the R & B Cadets, Semi-Twang, the Sub-Continentals. “The Why & The What For,” Semi-Twang’s newest, was released March 26 and is eliciting raves from esteemed sites like The Alternate Root (Top 50 Roots Bands Right Now!) and No Depression.

“Local boy John Sieger is one of our musical treasures. One of few musicians from Milwaukee who has made a lasting mark beyond our borders and earns the respect of his peers, both here and elsewhere, at the same time.” Bobby Tanzilo On Milwaukee

An unsung guitar hero from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he grew up just a few miles from the Waukesha birthplace of the late, great guitarist-inventor Les Paul, Greg Koch has established himself within six-string circles as a masterful technician, accomplished clinician (for Fender) and general bad-ass guit-picker. Koch continues to channel all the right people on his most recent collection of blues, funk and R&B, including Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Collins, Jeff Beck and Roy Buchanan with touches of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Danny Gatton and Richie Blackmore thrown in for good measure. And he filters all those killer influences through his own slightly bent prism that is tinted with grunge, gristle and good clean fun.

Greg’s new CD, “Greg Koch Plays Well With Others,” due in June, will feature a pile of these songs with guest stars including Robben Ford, Paul Barrere of Little Feat, Roscoe Beck, Leonard Cohen’s musical director and Joe Bonamassa.