Cat Power

Cat Power was the performing name of Chan Marshall, a blues-inspired singer/songwriter whose live shows could be eccentric, mesmerizing or both at once. Born in Atlanta, Marshall moved numerous times with her family as a child before returning to Atlanta, teaching herself guitar and sitting in with various local bands. At age 20 she moved to New York where she befriended some notable musicians including her first producer, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. Her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee (the name of her mother) were both recorded in a single day in December 1994. Full of fuzz guitars and funereal tempos, the albums were deep with foreboding and brought out the haunting quality in her voice. Soon after signing to Matador in 1996, she pronounced herself retired from music and moved to Portland, soon afterward she experienced a vivid nightmare that prompted a new set of songs. Ironically the result, Moon Pix was her most accessible album to date, with a warmer melodic touch inspired by the soul music she'd grown up with. The album was critically praised and an underground hit, but was accompanied by an odd series of live shows where Marshall would lose her way during songs, stare blankly into the audience, or not show up at all. Though the good shows outnumbered the bad ones, she would later admit that numerous issues-stage fright, depression and substance abuse-all contributed. Her music nonetheless continued to get more accessible, with 2000's The Covers Album turning the Stones' "Satisfaction:" into a piece of gorgeous melancholy. The follow-up You Are Free included some upbeat pop songs and guest appearances from Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder. Marshall's physical beauty was also getting noticed, as she was featured in a New York Magazine fashion spread and later modeled for Chanel. Another transformation cane on her 2006 album The Greatest, an homage to classic soul (and late-'60s Dusty Springfield) recorded with veteran Memphis session players. Touring behind that album she fronted a full band and was shockingly exuberant onstage; she later said that she'd lost the stage fright when she quit drinking. The next original album had a troubled birth as she nearly went broke financing the record herself, then threw it all out when a friend told her it was too depressing. She also cancelled a couple of high-profile live shows including a Coachella appearance in 2012, and was hospitalized around that time with the immune disorder angioedema. But when the Sun album finally appeared it proved her most upbeat to date, with a glossier modern production. Marshall once again disappeared from public view afterward, releasing no new music until 2016, when she appeared on three tracks on Ibifornia, by the electronic band Cassius.