Chris Pureka, Lana McMullen

Proudly genderqueer, Chris Pureka focuses on the personal, not the political or the cultural, except in the obligatory sense in which everything is political and cultural to some extent. She’s sometimes solo, sometimes with a group, never loud, never obnoxious, never blatting in your face. Pureka has made a career out of gently but insistently poking at the gaps between people, the misunderstandings, the struggles, three steps forward and two back, and, occasionally, grace, or something like it. Her songs offer that rare commodity of feeling cherished and understood all in one shot.