Cat Power

Cat Power

Cat Power is the stage name of Charlyn Marie Marshall, an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress and model from Atlanta, United States. Born in 1972, she first uses the name Cat Power for her initial band before adopting it as her solo performing name. She also uses the nickname Chan, pronounced “Shawn”.

Career

Marshall begins performing as Cat Power in Atlanta after dropping out of high school, backed by musicians including Glen Thrasher and Mark Moore. She moves to New York City in 1992. In 1994, after opening for Liz Phair, she meets Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, who encourage her to record and play on her first two albums.

Her early albums are Dear Sir and Myra Lee, both released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. She signs to Matador Records in 1996 and releases What Would the Community Think, which includes the single and video “Nude as the News”.

After that release, she steps away from the music scene for a time, working as a babysitter in Portland, Oregon and then moving to a farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina with Bill Callahan, who performs as Smog. Although she plans to retire from music, she writes new songs during a sleepless night, and those songs form much of Moon Pix.

Albums and recordings

Moon Pix is recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne in eleven days with Mick Turner and Jim White of the Dirty Three. It is well received by critics and helps establish her profile in indie rock. During later touring, she grows tired of her own songs and begins performing music for screenings of the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc in 1999. These performances mix original material with covers, and many of those covers later appear on The Covers Record, drawn from sessions recorded in 1998 and 1999.

Some additional covers are recorded at Peel Acres, the home of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and are broadcast on his show. Her versions there include Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York Town”.

She returns to original material in 2003 with You Are Free, which features guests Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl and Warren Ellis of the Dirty Three. In 2004 she releases Speaking for Trees, a DVD built around a single two-hour static shot of her performing in a woodland, along with an audio CD that includes the 18-minute track “Willie Deadwilder”, with M. Ward on guitar.

The Greatest follows in 2006, and is made with Al Green’s guitarist Teenie Hodges and other R&B musicians. Later that year she tours with the Memphis Rhythm Band and as a solo performer. In 2008 she releases Jukebox, her second covers album and eighth LP overall, with songs by Hank Williams, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Patsy Cline and Janis Joplin. She also releases the vinyl-only EP The Dark End of the Street.

In 2011 she makes the song “King Rides By” available as an MP3 in exchange for a donation to the Festival of Children Foundation and the Ali Forney Center. Her ninth studio album, Sun, arrives in 2012 and is described as her most commercially successful original album. It receives strong critical attention and appears on several year-end album lists.

Other work, collaborations and recognition

Marshall appears in Wong Kar Wai’s film My Blueberry Nights in 2007, playing Katya. She also performs live music for the spring and summer Chanel Haute Couture collection in Paris that same year. Earlier in 2007, she becomes the first woman to win the Shortlist Music Prize when The Greatest is voted album of the year. She is also nominated in the Best International Female category at the Brit Awards.

Her later career includes health-related cancellations and returns to touring. In 2015 she says she has a baby, and in 2016 she cancels New Zealand shows for health reasons.

Labels and style

Cat Power is associated with alternative rock, art pop, avant-folk, folk, indie folk and indie rock. Her recordings are issued through Matador Records and Dormat Music.