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Cat Power Gets Soul

2/5/07, 5:48 pm EST

Chan Marshall

“If anyone knows Bob Dylan,” Chan Marshall sighed in mock frustration while tuning her guitar onstage at Hiro Ballroom in New York City last night, “Could you please have him call my cell phone?” The indie icon, dressed in her trademark sexy tomboy look (drainpipe jeans, vintage men’s dress shoes, rock t-shirt, ponytail) performed this impromptu show without the Memphis Rhythm Band, with whom she’s been touring since the January 2006 release of her latest album The Greatest. For diehard Cat Power fans the show was a chance to see this reformed basket case in an incredibly intimate forum, as her only accompaniment was the intermittent presence of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Judah Bauer on guitar. Fans sat on the floor while Marshall conducted story hour, tinkering around on the piano, starting and abandoning a song or two (just because she’s sober doesn’t make her sane) and rapping away about everything from annoying people who bump into your chair to her dental work.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say Chan Marshall converses with her audience. It’s more like a cross between standup comedy and prophecy. When Marshall is funny (”Can somebody get me a scholarship to a really great college?”) everybody laughs. When Marshall asks for song requests, somebody provides one (”‘Metal Heart’!” an enthused fan pleaded.) When she calls out for “Kim” and you are Kim, you answer. But no one really talks back to her. A Cat Power show is about the music, but it’s also a chance to visit with an increasingly prominent rock oracle.

Marshall did perform a selection of actual songs between pleas for Dylan’s digits. In addition to already adored Cat Power tunes (”Lived in Bars,” “The Greatest” and her version of “Satisfaction”) Marshall performed a collection of typically haunting new covers. In her hands, “Tracks of My Tears” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” became incredibly personal laments, virtually unrecognizable from the original versions. “When I was about twelve I got into my daddy’s closet and I found this box of records,” Marshall said cryptically, explaining her apparent crush on old soul songs. Will Cat Power’s forthcoming covers album have an old school soul theme? Somebody call Dylan, he’s the only one she’ll tell.

What soul song would you like to hear Cat Power cover?


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Comments

stevie wonder | 2/5/2007, 6:21 pm EST

Clarence Carter; “Back Door Santa”

Warzawa | 2/5/2007, 6:25 pm EST

“Papa was a rolling stone…whereever he laid his head was his home…”

yahya m | 2/5/2007, 6:31 pm EST

sam cook “change gone come”

Bob Dylan | 2/5/2007, 6:58 pm EST

312-555-1212, ask for “Jack Frost.”

Dave | 2/5/2007, 9:28 pm EST

Is it just me or is Cat Power’s “Greatest” one of the most overhyped album of the last year? It’s not that she’s bad, but Lord there is so much better music being made. Give it a rest.

For the best music information source: http://www.direct-current.net

Kash | 2/5/2007, 9:37 pm EST

Otis Redding’s “I’ve been loving you too long” would probably be too much for my heart to bear; her voice would give that song a different kind of emotional punch that may be stronger.

A more recent track: My Morning Jacket’s Bermuda Highway.

andrew | 2/6/2007, 12:02 am EST

“sinnerman” by nina simone

Henry Oh | 2/6/2007, 5:34 am EST

Percy Sledge Any Day Now

Stephen | 2/6/2007, 9:28 am EST

Al Green – “Beware”

Stuporfly | 2/6/2007, 9:38 am EST

“‘When I was about twelve I got into my daddy’s closet and I found this box of records,’ Marshall said cryptically, explaining her apparent crush on old soul songs.”

Is there no aspect of Chan Marshall’s life that she doesn’t try to mythologize? I’m surprised she didn’t say she’d been given the records by a grizzled old man at a southern crossroads in the middle of nowhere.

If someone does pony up Dylan’s number for poor little Chan, can they do so with the caveat that she profusely apologize for stinking up Lincoln Center at last year’s tribute show in his honor? Following the blistering performance by the Roots couldn’t have been easy, but eschewing her boorish ‘gee whiz’ shy stage spasms and phony spontaneity certainly couldn’t have hurt.

I actually consider myself a fan of Cat Power, but I wish Chan Marshall would stop trying to hard to be an enigma and just concentrate on recording her brilliant music.

¡Ben! | 2/6/2007, 9:44 am EST

Feeling Good – Nina Simone

SG, Atlanta, GA | 2/6/2007, 2:39 pm EST

Oh Stupor… just let the gal work through it, ‘k? Who’s it really hurting?

Stuporfly | 2/6/2007, 4:29 pm EST

SG,

Those of us who hold out a shred of hope that we’ll witness a fantastic live show instead of the outtakes from the original Bob Newhart Show she tends to favor. That’s who it’s hurting.

If playing live is such an ordeal – and at three of the four Cat Power shows I’ve been to, it obviously has been – why bother doing it at all? If she wants to treat the live experience as some sort of personal cathartic therapy, she should be paying the audience, not the other way around.

I love her albums, but live she’s mostly a self-obsessed disaster.

DrJ | 2/6/2007, 4:31 pm EST

“Ooh Child,” (which Nina Simone covered beautifully–I can’t remember who did it originally)

yahya m | 2/6/2007, 8:44 pm EST

also “aint no sunshine when she’s gone” also just about any nina simone cover would be nice

by the way, i agree with you stuperfly by the way…

Stefolo G | 2/7/2007, 9:05 am EST

Anything by My Bloody Valentine

Rallyracer | 2/7/2007, 6:25 pm EST

I’ll give the show a C+

The show, advertised as “doors at 7, show at 7:30″, didn’t get started until 9:30, because Marshall didn’t show up until 7. So, the patient hipsters were forced to wait in zero degree weather for an extra 2 hours so she could perform her sound check and what not. She came on stage at 9:30 to an angry crowd, who didn’t hold back letting her know how they felt. Not a good start for Marshall, and not a good finish either. The show, while having some high points, like a cover of House of the Rising Sun, had some low points as well, like her making up songs, trying out new ones, not finishing old ones because she forgot them, and (my personal favorite) taking requests from the crowd and then never playing them. The show abruptly ended an hour later at 10:30 with no encore. The venue had to kick everyone out, so they could clean up and re-open it as a lounge at 11:00.

Highlights: The Hiro Ballroom is a sweet looking club.
Lowlights: $30 for band practice with Chan Marshall.
Celebrity Spotting: Molly Shannon.

Anonymous | 2/7/2007, 6:46 pm EST

Anyone know the first song she played at this show? I think it was a cover.

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