Cat Power

Cat Power
Cat Power singing into a microphone
Cat Power in Hamburg, 2013
Background information
Birth nameCharlyn Marie Marshall
Also known asChan Marshall
Cat Power
Born (1972-01-21) January 21, 1972 (age 52)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • piano
Years active1992–present
Labels
Websitecatpowermusic.com

Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall (/ˈʃɔːn/ SHAWN;[3][4] born January 21, 1972),[5] better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.

Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern United States and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with 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 Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs.

After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date.[6]

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.[7]

  1. ^ Goodman 2009, p. 131.
  2. ^ Payne, John (February 13, 2003). "The Queen of Sadcore". LA Weekly. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  3. ^ Van Meter, William (January 23, 2006). "I'm a Survivor". New York Magazine.
  4. ^ Cat Power - What's In My Bag? on YouTube
  5. ^ Larkin 2011, p. 35.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference matchbox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Traynor, Cian (June 18, 2012). "Interview: Cat Power". The Stool Pigeon. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012.