Rebecca Rego w/ Chris Plowman

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, May 9, 2014
8:00 pm

The Wisconsin native Rebecca Rego dubbed her debut outing [Tolono] with the Illinois band The Trainmen after a downstate village built around the Illinois Central Railroad, where the street signs bear the names of its revered employees.
Rego stumbled upon Matt Talbott's Earth Analog Studio where the band spent three candle-burning days and nights laying down Tolono's tracks live to "2 tape.

Rebecca Has recently been featured on IPR's Java Blend, WUWM's Lake Effect, WGN Music Lounge, and WXRT's Local Anesthetic.
"[Tolono is] an album worth celebrating, from Rego's smart, attentive songwriting, to her earthy and appealing Edie Brickell-like voice, to the rustic warmth of the band that chugs along behind her" --- Piet Levy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Chris Plowman, in his own words, "Raised between very urban (Austin, TX) and very rural (NW Arkansas) settings, with a seemingly limitless spectrum of musical and cultural influence, my music varies greatly across the board...everything from adolescent punk, gypsy rock, hip-hop, and grungy angst to classical, folk, rock, jazz, and songwriters' sentiments. A self-taught musician, I rely primarily on my ear and intuition for musical direction and composition Currently residing in Madison, WI."