Var Gallery Presents: Caley Conway + Cass Magpie + lifetime achievement award

CASS MAGPIE (La Crosse, WI) With each word Cass Magpie delivers a wide breadth of experiences to every listener. Her timbre paints any room with the richness and warmth of crimson as she sings ruminations of a lost girlhood, heartbreak by divine intervention, euphoria fulfilled, and impassioned righteous anger. Cass Magpie performances are intimate – expressive narratives that dive into what it means to be a queer woman in this new age of acceptance and violence. “I tried to be an animal but it’s harder than it looks.” - Cass Magpie CALEY CONWAY Caley Conway is difficult to pin down. Over the course of nine years the ever-busy Milwaukee singer-songwriter has explored the spaces between folk, jazz, rock, and post-rock. She’s released numerous records and singles both with a full band and as a solo artist. She’s played with Field Report and experimental improv trio Argopelter. She has a song about cheese. The one connecting thread is Conway’s voice, intimate and confessional one moment, cool and on the verge of a devastating put-down the next. The push-and-pull is fascinating. -Matt Wild, Milwaukee Record lifetime achievement award: Home recording project by Jay