Cat Power

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Cat Power <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Cat power by basic sounds.jpg Cat Power at Lee's Palace, Toronto, Sept. 4th 2006. </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Charlyn Marie Marshall</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">January 21, 1972</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">USA</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Indie rock, singer-songwriter</td></tr><tr><td>Occupation(s)</td><td colspan="2">Singer-songwriter</td></tr><tr><td>Instrument(s)</td><td colspan="2">Vocals, guitar, piano</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1995-present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Runt Matador Smells Like Plain</td></tr>

Cat Power is the stage name of American singer/songwriter Charlyn "Chan" Marshall (born Charlyn Marie Marshall, January 21, 1972), known for her minimalist style, sparse guitar and piano playing, and ethereal Southern-styled vocals. She is often accompanied by backing musicians on record and in concert.

1 Biography
2 Performance Style
3 Trivia
4 Discography
5 External links
- 5.1 Official sites
- 5.2 Databases

[edit] Biography

The daughter of divorced parents, Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall was born in Georgia. Her childhood involved much upheaval, with Marshall living throughout the Southern United States (Greensboro, North Carolina; Bartlett, Tennessee; and Georgia and South Carolina,) back and forth between parents. In interviews she has openly discussed her childhood and stated that the constant travelling prepared her for the touring life of a professional musician.

After dropping out of high school, she started performing under the name Cat Power while in Atlanta, backed by musicians Glen Thrasher, Mark Moore, and others. In 1990 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 the avant-garde jazz composer 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 shows as "more improvisational." [1]. 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 15 minutes[2]. 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 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, 1995's Dear Sir and 1996's Myra Lee. Both albums were recorded in New York on the same day in December 1994 and display a lack of conventional song structures possibly influenced by the experimental music that Thrasher had introduced her to. In 1996 she was signed to Matador Records, and released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News".

Image:Cat Power.jpg

Following a three-month tour in late 1996, with the band Guv'ner and in support of the release of What Would the Community Think, Marshall disappeared from the musical 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 (who performs under the name Smog). The plan was to permanently retire from music but during a sleepless night resulting from a nightmare, Marshall wrote several new songs. These songs would make up the bulk of Moon Pix. The record was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne in eleven days with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Dirty Three. [3] The album was well-received by critics, and gained her recognition in the indie rock scene. However, during subsequent tours Marshall states that she had grown tired of 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 The Covers Record, a collection of cover songs 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 highly influential and legendary 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" amongst others.

In 2003 she resumed releasing original material with You Are Free, a diverse and critically applauded album which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis. A music video was released for the song "He War" and found moderate exposure on MTV2's Subterranean.

The year 2004 saw the release of the critically polarizing DVD Speaking for Trees, which featured a single, nearly 2-hour static shot of Marshall performing in a woodland, and was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song "Willie Deadwilder", featuring M. Ward on guitar. 2005 found Marshall out on the road again, touring the world and playing sold-out solo shows, including an Australian tour supporting Nick Cave. The shows largely consisted of material that would appear on her next album.

Her latest record, The Greatest, was released in January, 2006. This was not a greatest hits record but rather the Matador Records-arranged collaboration with Al Green's guitarist Teenie Hodges and many other talented musicians. A tour followed in the Fall of 2006.

Early in 2006, Marshall announced the cancellation of her upcoming United States Tour, citing "health-related issues". A few days later, Matador announced the cancellation of her two shows in London and Paris. In a interview she revealed that the cancellation was to due to her recent recovery from alcoholism. She resumed touring in April 2006, playing some of the most well received shows of her career both with the Memphis Rhythm Band and as a solo performer.

[edit] Performance Style

Image:Cat power by mahalie.jpg

Traditionally, Marshall’s live shows have been notorious for their chaotic and unpolished nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. Marshall has in the past spoken of her severe stage fright. She has been known to stop playing in order to apologize for a self-perceived flaw in her performance. She has even cut short a few of her performances without explanation.^{[citation needed]} These events have had a polarizing effect on Marshall’s fan base. Some have been alienated by what they perceive as Marshall’s lack of professionalism, while others have enjoyed what they see as a candid, honest, and spontaneous performance. Marshall is often very talkative during performances, usually cracking jokes.

Recently, Marshall's performance style has been said to be much more up-beat and professional. An article in Salon magazine [4] called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat", stating that Marshall was finally "delivering onstage." In the article, Marshall states that her newfound musical collaborators and sobriety are largely responsible for her increased confidence onstage.

Marshall is notable both as a songwriter and as an innovative interpreter of other artists' songs. Her cover versions often ignore the melodies and lyrical hooks of the originals, as evidenced by her renditions of Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", or alter the mood of the song altogether, as with her recording of Oasis' "Wonderwall". The music is similarly stripped down, often to little more than an electric guitar with a clean tone and her voice.

She often performs unreleased covers at her live shows. Her choice of covers over the years has revealed a widespread and eclectic taste in both new and old music, incorporating artists as diverse as Gnarls Barkley, the White Stripes, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, and Jessie Mae Hemphill. She is constantly introducing new covers into her live performances though the unpredictability of her live shows has made the performance of certain songs a rarity, as is the case with her rarely performed version of "Wolf Among Wolves" by Will Oldham among others. In addition, her highly personalized version of "The House of the Rising Sun" is particularly notable in that it is an example of a traditional folk song being performed in the tradition of folk music, that of adding new lyrics to an old song to make it a more personal expression. This adaptation of old songs is largely absent from modern music.

[edit] Trivia

Marshall has admitted to abusing alcohol in the past. According to a recent BBC interview, she is now sober. [5]

Marshall's father, Charlie, was a blues musician and itinerant pianist.

Marshall lent her vocals to the track "I've Been Thinking" from the 2004 Handsome Boy Modelling School album, White People. She also sang on the song "Great Waves", from the 2005 Dirty Three album Cinder.

Marshall is of Cherokee, Irish, Dutch, and Jewish descent.^{[citation needed]}

She is somewhat shy and a loner though recent interviews seem to show her coming out of her shell a little bit. She has described herself as an "introverted person."

Marshall has done advertisements for GAP [6] and Cingular [7].

She has supported numerous charitable causes, including "The Bereaved Israeli and Palestinian Parents' Circle" and PETA, and appeared at the "Fuck Cancer Benefit". In November 2006 she performed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York with all proceeds going to the Music For Youth Foundation.

She was spotted at numerous Bob Dylan concerts in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2006, she agreed to be the celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld said that Cat Power was perfect for the campaign because "only a woman—she—can look glamorous while smoking."[8]

In contrast to her stage name, she has admitted she is more of a dog person.[9].

In 2006 she began dating cultural journalist Scott Indrisek.^{[citation needed]}

She regards hip-hop singer Mary J. Blige as a hero because of her recovery from drugs and alcohol abuse.

Her cover of Cat Stevens' "How Can I Tell You" is used in a 2006 Christmas-season gift-giving commercial by the diamond industry.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Dear Sir CD/LP(10") (1995, Runt Records) (reissued CD/LP(12") 2001, Plain recordings)
Myra Lee (1996, Smells Like Records)
What Would the Community Think (1996, Matador Records)
Moon Pix (1998, Matador Records)
The Covers Record (2000, Matador Records)
You Are Free (2003, Matador Records) US #105, UK #157
The Greatest (2006, Matador Records) US #34, UK #45, CAN #63, AUS #26

[edit] Singles

Headlights (7", 1994, The Making of Americans)
Tracks: "Headlights", "Darling Said Sir"
Guv'ner in Catpowerland / Cat Power goes to Guvnerville (7", split single, 1996, Wiiija Records)
Tracks: Guv'ner - "Great Expectations" (Cat Power), Cat Power - "Clear The Room" (Guv'ner)
Nude as the News (7" / CD5, 1996, Matador Records)
Tracks: "Nude As The News", "Schizophrenia's Weighted Me Down" (Thurston Moore / Alexander Spence)
Undercover (7", 1996, Undercover Records)
Tracks: "Psychic Hearts" (Thurston Moore), "We Dance" (Stephen Malkmus), "Johnny's Got A Gun" (Dead Moon)
He War (CD5, 2002, Matador Records)
Tracks: "He War", "Good Woman", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Mick Jagger & Keith Richards)
The Greatest (7", 2006, Matador Records)
Tracks: "The Greatest", "Hate"
Could We (7", 2006, Matador Records)
Tracks: "Could We", "Dreams" (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant's All I Have to Do Is Dream)
Living Proof (2006, Matador Records)
eMusic Session EP (2006, eMusic/Matador Records)
Tracks: "The Greatest", "Remember Me", "Ramblin' Man", "Good Woman"
Special release only for eMusic [10]