Known for breaking down during performances only to finish through the encouragement of her audience, Cat Power's Chan Marshall is channeling some different support for her early 2006 release, The Greatest.

"Playing with these guys makes it a more joyful, country kind of thing," Marshall says of Al Green alums Teenie and Leroy Hodges and Booker T. and the MG's drummer Steve Potts, who recorded it with her at Memphis' Ardent Studios in just about five days. "Just to have them sitting around, telling me stories about Ike and Tina [Turner], was really amazing," says Marshall. "And there was some corn liquor that Teenie brought in -- it was a good time."

Though sonically cheery, the album veers into subject matter as dark and introspective as her previous effort, You Are Free. The title track is a ballad about a little boy who dreams of being a boxer. "It's an homage to the unsung hero," Marshall says. "On tour, you meet these characters, and it seems like everyone is just working, working, working -- and struggling to keep up."

And, of course, there's an old-fashioned love song, "Could We." Says Marshall, "It's the breakup song, the fall-in-love song, the summer-love song."