Cat Power

All Music Guide:

Penning songs that are offbeat in narrative, but literate and emotionally revealing, and performing them in a soulful, idiosyncratic style that reveals both strength and fragility, Cat Power was one of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters to emerge from the 1990s indie rock scene, a one of a kind artist unafraid to reveal her inner self in her music and follow her muse in a variety of different directions.

Cat Power is the stage name of Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall, born Charlyn Marie Marshall in Atlanta, Georgia on January 21, 1972. Marshall's father was a blues musician, but her parents divorced when she was young, and she spent much of her nomadic childhood moving back and forth between her father, her mother, and her grandfather. While Marshall's parents didn't encourage her to play music early on, she wrote her first song when she was in fourth grade, and immersed herself in her stepfather's record collection, dominated by soul and classic rock. When Marshall was 16, she moved in with her father in Atlanta, and by 18 she had dropped out of high school and settled on her own. She fell in with a group of experimental indie rock musicians in Atlanta and began jamming with her new friends, initially for fun but eventually playing with several bands before forming a group called Cat Power. The name came from a trucker's cap emblazoned with "Cat Diesel Power" that Marshall spotted while working at a pizza joint. After streamlining it into a suitable band name, she later took Cat Power as her stage alias, and she began earning a reputation on the Atlanta music scene.

In 1992, Marshall relocated to New York City and initially focused her energies on writing songs, but as she became aware of New York's experimental music community, she was emboldened to put fresh emphasis on performing, and began playing semi-improvised shows around the city. In 1993, Marshall became acquainted with members of the group God Is My Co-Pilot, and with their help, she released the first Cat Power single, "Headlights" b/w "Darling Said Sir." Later the same year, Cat Power opened for Liz Phair in New York, and two of the fans who caught the show were Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar and his friend Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth. Foljahn and Shelley were impressed enough with Marshall that they volunteered to help her make an album, and they backed her on Cat Power's first full-length album, Dear Sir, released by Plain Records in 1995. A second album, Myra Lee, was issued by Shelley's Smells Like Records label in early 1996, featuring unused material from the Dear Sir sessions. Strong reviews and growing interest from the indie music community led to Marshall signing with Matador Records, and her third album, What Would the Community Think, appeared in the fall of 1996.

While Cat Power became known as a compelling performer, Marshall also developed a reputation for erratic live shows, sometimes performing with her back to the audience, stopping songs in mid-stream, or spouting spontaneous monologs on-stage, suggesting she was often uncomfortable in front of an audience, though on other nights she could deliver a solid, intense show. In 1997, Marshall's anxieties led her to drop out of music and move to South Carolina, but a bout of insomnia followed by nightmares inspired a new set of songs, and she opted to return to the recording studio. 1998's Moon Pix was recorded in Australia with accompaniment from Mick Turner and Jim White of the Dirty Three, and featured a warmer, more full-bodied sound than Cat Power's early work. Marshall set aside songwriting for her next project, 2000's The Covers Record, which included a new recording of "In This Hole" from What Would the Community Think, along with interpretations of classic songs by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, Moby Grape, and others. In early 2003, another Cat Power album was released, You Are Free, which offered a more polished and cohesive sound than before and featured guest appearances from fans Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl.

In 2005, Marshall recorded The Greatest, an excellent soul-influenced album featuring Memphis R&B legends Mabon "Teenie" Hodges and Leroy "Flick" Hodges from the Hi Records Rhythm Section. The album came out in early 2006, and Marshall booked a tour in support, but the road trip was cancelled when her long simmering emotional problems and troubles with alcohol came to a head. Marshall would later tell a reporter, "The doctor said I had a psychotic break because I was suffering severe, massive depression and overwhelming stress." Marshall checked herself into a hospital to deal with her nervous breakdown and her alcoholism (she admitted to drinking as much as a fifth of scotch each day), and a few months later, she was back on the road with the musicians who helped her record The Greatest, delivering strong, confident performances and telling the press she had finally controlled her drinking problem.

After touring with the crew from The Greatest in the spring and summer of 2006, Marshall hit the road again later that year with a group she called the Dirty Delta Blues Band, featuring Judah Bauer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of the Delta 72, and previous collaborator Jim White. The Dirty Delta Blues Band formed the core of Marshall's studio band for the next Cat Power album, 2008's Jukebox, which like The Covers Album was dominated by versions of songs by the likes of Billie Holiday, James Brown, and Joni Mitchell.

In 2009, Marshall became romantically involved with actor Giovanni Ribisi and moved to Los Angeles to be closer to him. The relationship ended abruptly in April 2012, while Marshall, who was taking time off from music to help Ribisi raise his daughter from a previous marriage, was working on her first collection of original songs since 2006. Adding insult to injury, Ribisi married his new girlfriend on June 16, 2012; Marshall responded by putting the finishing touches on the album, called Sun, which was released in September 2012.

Wikipedia:

Charlyn Marie Marshall (born January 21, 1972), also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands.

Marshall was discovered opening for Liz Phair in 1994 by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996 she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of the Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely recorded cover songs. After a brief hiatus she reemerged in 2003 with You Are Free, featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians, and a second covers album, Jukebox (2008). In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which opened at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest charting album of her career to date.

Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power's sound, with a "mix of punk, folk and blues" on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material. Her 2012 album Sun incorporated electronica, in a self-proclaimed move from the "really slow guitar songs" she initially wrote for the album.

Early life [edit]

Chan Marshall was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Marshall's father, Charlie, is a blues musician and pianist. Her parents divorced when she was a child and remarried shortly thereafter. Her mother remarried, and the family travelled around a lot because of her stepfather's job. Marshall attended ten different schools throughout the southern United States in places such as Greensboro; Bartlett and Memphis and throughout Georgia and South Carolina. At times she was left with her grandmother. In interviews she stated that the constant traveling prepared her for the touring life of a professional musician. She was not allowed to buy records when she was growing up, but she listened to her stepfather's record collection which included such artists as Otis Redding, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones.

Marshall became estranged from her mother at 16, having no contact with her until she was 24 and says they are still not close. She went back to live with her father in Atlanta but only stayed with him until she was 18, when she moved out. Marshall claims he never taught her any music, forbidding her to play his piano. Her first instrument was a 1950s Silvertone guitar, which she did not touch for a year after buying it, because “It was art in the corner.”

After leaving home, she started playing in Atlanta with a collective of musicians made up of Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly, when a man walked through the door of the pizzeria where Marshall worked, wearing a Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power". Marshall immediately decided on Cat Power as the name of the band. While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet. Due to her close relationships with the various people involved, she has stated that her involvement in music at this time was primarily a social interest rather than an artistic one. She also stated in a 2007 interview for Soft Focus that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends to get drunk and take drugs. A number of her peers became entrenched in heroin use, and this contributed to her desire to leave Atlanta.

Career [edit]

Early work (1992–1996) [edit]

In 1992, at the age of 20, she moved to New York City with Glen Thrasher. It was Thrasher who introduced her to New York's free-jazz and experimental music scene. In particular she cites a concert by Anthony Braxton with giving her the confidence to perform in public. Her first New York show was at a warehouse in Brooklyn and she has described her early New York shows as "more improvisational." One of her shows during this period was as the support act to Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for fifteen minutes. Around this time she made the acquaintance of God Is My Co-Pilot, a relationship that resulted in them releasing her first single, "Headlights," in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.

In 1994 she opened for the acclaimed American singer-songwriter Liz Phair in New York. In attendance were Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, who encouraged her to record, and played on her first two albums, Dear Sir and Myra Lee. Both albums were recorded on the same day in December 1994, but the former was released in 1995 on italian indie label Runt, while the latter was released in 1996 on Shelley's Smells Like Records label.

Matador records and hiatus (1996–2002) [edit]

In 1996 she signed to Matador Records and in September released her third album, What Would the Community Think. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News". Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases.

In 1998 Marshall released Moon Pix, composed mostly of new songs written in one night following a nightmare Marshall experienced while alone at a farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina. The record was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia in 11 days with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Australian band, Dirty Three. It was strongly received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition in the indie rock scene.

By 2000 Marshall stated that she had grown tired of touring her own material. This resulted in a series of shows during 1999 where Marshall provided musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and many covers, many of which would later see release on Marshall's fifth album, The Covers Record. Released in 2000, The Covers Record was a collection of cover songs by Marshall recorded at various sessions in 1998 and 1999. A selection of covers that didn't make it on to the album were recorded at Peel Acres, home of the British DJ John Peel. The session was broadcast on his BBC Radio 1 show and featured Marshall's own interpretations of Bob Dylan's "Hard Times in New York Town" and Oasis's "Wonderwall", amongst others. Her contract with Matador for 2000's The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder.

Reemergence (2003–2006) [edit]

In 2003 Marshall released You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "He War." Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the US and Australia. In 2004 she released Speaking for Trees: A Film by Mark Borthwick, which featured her singing and playing guitar in a forest in West Kill Mountain, New York, in essentially a single, nearly two-hour static shot, filmed by British photographer Mark Borthwick.

Marshall continued performing in 2005, which included an Australian tour supporting Nick Cave, and an appearance in June at the Patti Smith-curated Meltdown festival in London, UK.

In 2006 she released her seventh album, The Greatest. Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, it was not a greatest hits collection but rather a Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring numerous veteran Memphis studio musicians, including Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy Hodges, David Smith and Steve Potts. The album opened at 34 on the Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." She returned to live performance in April 2006, playing with the same "Memphis Rhythm Band" who backed her on The Greatest and also as a solo performer, including a performance at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York, a fund raiser for the charity Music for Youth.

New band, Jukebox and Sun (2007–present) [edit]

In January 2008 Marshall released her second covers album, Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and Jim White of the Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby," Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the Moon Pix song "Metal Heart." In December 2008 she released Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the Jukebox sessions.

On December 25, 2011, Marshall released a reworking of the What Would the Community Think track "King Rides By" for download from her official website, with all proceeds from sales of the track being donated to The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center. A music video directed by Giovanni Ribisi and featuring Filipino boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao was released to promote the song. In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the Jewish state over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012.

Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released on September 3, 2012, with lead single "Ruin" being released as a free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. In a review published on September 4, 2012 on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "is a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter’s soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week.

Marshall revealed in an interview on an Australian youth radio station, Triple J, that an Australian tour had been confirmed to occur in 2013.

On tour [edit]

Cat Power postponed her 2012 European tour dates again because she was suffering from angioedema.

Collaborations and contributions [edit]

Around this time, Marshall collaborated with Mick Collins (of The Dirtbombs) on a recording of Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film Wayne County Ramblin'. Marshall sang the poem in German, though she does not speak the language. Since returning to the stage Marshall has contributed guest vocals to several albums. She performed a duet with model Karen Elson on an English cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non-plus" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. She also sang lead vocal on the Ensemble track "Disown, Delete" and reworked "Revelations" with Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album Yes, I'm a Witch. She also performed guest vocals for Faithless and El-P. She also duets on the Dexter Romweber Duo song "Love Letters". In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of Ethan Hawke's movie The Hottest State, recording with Jesse Harris and Terry Manning, and the Academy Award-winning film Juno. In early 2008, she collaborated with Beck and producer Danger Mouse on the album Modern Guilt. She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year. Chan Marshall provides backup vocals on Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case on the 2009 album Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011 she also featured as guest on "Tonight You Belong To Me" on Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs.

Other work [edit]

Fashion [edit]

In the early 2000s Marshall was embraced by the fashion industry for her "neo grunge" look, and seen as a muse by designers such as Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière. She was invited to many high profile fashion shows. In 2001 she modelled in New York Magazine's Fall fashion issue and was photographed by her friends Mark Borthwick and Katja Rahlwes, who featured her in Purple Magazine alongside Catherine Deneuve.

In October 2006 she became the celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel, after being seen by Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a Purple Magazine feature.

Advertising [edit]

In 2007 Marshall's voice could be heard in commercials for Cingular and De Beers in the United States and Garnier in the United Kingdom. Previously Marshall had done advertisements for GAP. In September 2008, Marshall and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi & Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' for a Lincoln car commercial.

Film work [edit]

2004 saw the release of the DVD Speaking for Trees, which featured a continuous, nearly 2-hour static shot of Marshall performing in a woodland. The set was accompanied by an audio CD containing the eighteen-minute song "Willie Deadwilder," featuring M. Ward on guitar. She had a small role in the 2007 film My Blueberry Nights opposite Jude Law. She also appeared in Doug Aitken's MOMA installation Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Marshall can be seen as a postal worker living in New York, performing with other notable participants such as Tilda Swinton.

Charity work [edit]

A live version of the gospel song "Amazing Grace"—culled from a performance with the Dirty Delta Blues band—was released on the charity compilation Dark Was the Night. Released by independent British label 4AD on February 17, 2009, the set benefited the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. She also appeared in a PETA ad, encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.

Performance style [edit]

Marshall’s live shows have been known for their unpolished nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. She has also cut short performances without explanation. On some occasions this has been attributed to stage fright and the influence of alcohol.

Recently, Marshall's performance style has been said to be much more enthusiastic and professional. An article in Salon called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat", stating that Marshall was "delivering onstage". In the article, Marshall states that her newfound musical collaborators and sobriety are largely responsible for her increased confidence onstage.

Awards [edit]

Also in 2006, she became the first female solo act to win the Shortlist Music Prize when The Greatest was voted album of the year in June. Earlier in the year she was nominated in the Best International Female Solo Artist category at the annual BRIT Awards.

Marshall was featured in Maxim's Hot 100 women of 2009, she was placed at number 19.

Personal life [edit]

In 1992, Marshall moved into a New York apartment which she maintains to this day, only paying $160 a month in rent. Around 2003 she bought a house in South Beach, Miami from a high school friend. In 2009 Marshall moved to Los Angeles to share a house in Silver Lake, California with her then boyfriend. They also had a rental house in Malibu where she had a studio.

Relationships [edit]

When Marshall was working as a waitress in Atlanta her boyfriend died, causing her to have a breakdown. She says this, coupled with the prevalence of heroin use amongst her friends and the loss of her best friend to AIDS, was the impetus for her moving to New York. Her boyfriend in New York helped her get a job in a restaurant, but she realised he was having an affair with the owner, a married woman with two children.

In late 1996, following a three-month tour co-headlining with the band Guv'ner, Marshall disappeared from the music scene, initially working as a baby sitter in Portland, Oregon, and then moving to a farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina, with then boyfriend Bill Callahan. The plan was to permanently retire from public performance but during a sleepless night resulting from a nightmare, Marshall wrote several new songs and returned to recording.

In 2001 Marshall was romantically involved with a runway model, Daniel (Cury), who was seven years younger than her. He left her in 2003 at a time when she was drinking heavily and abusing other drugs. Marshall referred to him as “the ex-love of my life”. Following the release of "The Greatest", Marshall cancelled previously arranged live shows in North America and Europe. She was struggling with a relationship with a young Miami investment banker.

According to an interview in January 2011, Marshall was in a relationship with actor Giovanni Ribisi since 2006 and lived with Ribisi and his 14-year-old daughter in L.A.. In June 2012, it was reported that Marshall was no longer in a relationship with Ribisi. The completion of Marshall's album 'Sun' coincided with their break up "I cut my hair off three days [after the break-up], got on a plane to France, and finished the shit," 'Sun' was released in September 2012; Ribisi had married British model Agyness Deyn in June.

Alcohol and mental health difficulties [edit]

By the turn of the century, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, with The New Yorker suggesting, "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem, telling HARP magazine in 2006 "I didn't know I was messed up." Marshall has admitted abusing alcohol in the past; in a 2006 interview with The New York Times, she declared herself to be sober, which she defined as having had "seven drinks in seven months."

Following the cancellation of the arranged tour of the Greatest album in 2006, Marshall used the hiatus to recover from what she described as a "psychotic break," brought on by mental exhaustion and alcohol abuse, which had left her feeling suicidal. As part of her recovery, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute but left after a week, stating "being in there wasn't me." She later likened the experience to "a pit of hell." Marshall gave a first person account of her breakdown in an interview for the November 2006 issue of Spin.

Filmography [edit]