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.

Caley Conway’s latest EP is similarly difficult to pin down. The three-track Only A Dark Cocoon is inspired by the classic Joni Mitchell song “The Last Time I Saw Richard” (from 1971’s Blue), but it’s not a tribute album. All three songs borrow liberally from Mitchell’s lyrics, but it’s not a cover album. Think of it more like a reimagining or an expansion, with Mitchell’s gorgeously rendered song of romantic disillusionment and the hope that lies beyond it serving as a beam of light, and Conway’s voice and sensibility serving as a prism. The colors that emerge are fascinating. -Matt Wild, Milwaukee Record