The Greatest (the brand-new album) January 24, 2006

			The Greatest: Slipcase Edition January 24, 2006
Chan Marshall stops time. She sits at a piano or lays her guitar across her lap, and whether it’s a noisy club overflowing with drunks or a coffee house full of laptoppers, Chan Marshall draws all the attention in the room and makes the world stop spinning. As Cat Power, Marshall’s music seems to rise from nowhere, envelop the room, then vanish; listeners know they’ve been hit by something but they’re not sure what. For 'The Greatest' (not a greatest hits, but the brand-new studio album), Marshall returned to Memphis, pursuing this time the slinky Hi Records sound of the 70s, famed for its sensuous feel and beguiling rhythms. She got Al Green’s guitarist and songwriting partner Mabon "Teenie" Hodges to play guitar on the whole album (Teenie co-wrote "Love and Happiness" and "Take Me to the River," among other soul classics). With Teenie came his Hi Rhythm bandmate (and brother) Leroy "Flick" Hodges, who plays on half of the album (Memphis A-team bassist Dave Smith supplements). Anchoring the band is Steve Potts, whose reputation on drums was solidified when the surviving members of Booker T. and the MG’s asked him to replace their late drummer, Al Jackson. Other top Memphis musicians guest on keyboards, horns and strings. Cat Power went right to the sources, and has created her own paean to the songs and styles she grew up on. 'The Greatest' adds to Cat Power’s singular sound all the elements that make an Al Green record great: Memphis horns, funky string arrangements, smooth background vocals. "Lived in Bars" is a hypnotic song that seems to start in the middle of the night and flow backward like water upstream to the source of a good time. Many songs hearken back to earlier in Cat Power’s career, like the surface simplicity of "Willie"—much more complicated upon deeper listen—and like "Where Is My Love," which sounds like it could be the first song she ever wrote, and also the one to which she has always aspired. "Living Proof," on the other hand, has an almost gospel-like swing that stands in contrast to the quieter songs. The ethereal title track is the missing link between Big Star 3rd and the 21st century; if Alex Chilton were today a beautiful young woman, he’d sound like this. Recording in Memphis is actually a return performance for Chan Marshall. She first came to the city of Southern Soul in February 1996 to record her second album, 'What Would The Community Think?' The engineer on that session was Stuart Sikes, who recorded many sessions at the Easley-McCain Studio. Sikes leapt from indie-rock notoriety to mainstream prominence with his work mixing Loretta Lynn’s Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, which won a Grammy. This album was recorded at Ardent Studios, the renowned home to the Big Star legacy, also used by Stax as their alternate studio, and graced by everyone from Bob Dylan to the North Mississippi All Stars. And now, also, Cat Power. Credits: All songs by Chan Marshall Chan Marshall - guitar, piano, vocal Mabon "Teenie" Hodges – guitar on all songs except hate Steve Potts - drums Leroy "Flick" Hodges - bass on the moon, lived in bars, the greatest, love & communication David Smith - bass on living proof, could we, empty shell, willie, islands, after it all Additional Musicians Doug Easley - guitar, Pedal Steel Rick Steff - keyboards, Claitone, Piano, Organ Jim Spake - sax Scott Thompson - trumpet Roy Brewer - violin Johnathan Kirkscey - cello Beth Luscone - viola String arrangements by Harlan T Bobo, Johnathan Kirkscey and Chan Marshall Recorded by Stuart Sikes at Ardent Studios Mixed by Stuart Sikes and Chan Marshall Cat Power select discography: 'Dear Sir' (Plain, 1995) 'Myra Lee' (Smells Like, 1996) 'What Would The Community Think' (Matador, 1996) 'Moon Pix' (Matador, 1998) 'The Covers Record' (Matador, 2000) 'You Are Free' (Matador, 2003) 'The Greatest' (Matador, 2006)
					You Are Free February 18, 2003

Cat Power’s Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall exists on a plane somewhat different than yours or mine, as anybody who has heard her sing knows. Her voice is unlike anyone you’ve heard before, combining raw intimacy with a gruff, chalky confidence, and while any attempt to interpret her lyrics comes up short, their plain-spoken lines belie an otherwordly perspective on primal human emotions. She's abstract, but always honest and true. That awareness has caused a tidal wave of adulation for Chan from her giant fan base, one that has tripled with each new record released. They’ll go anywhere with her, trusting that it always leads to a familiar place that will never seem the same.

Recorded by Adam Kasper (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam), You Are Free is Chan’s first record of original material since 1998’s Moon Pix, and she's at the apex of her talents. She's fascinated with American music, as heard through her covers of songs by Dylan, Lou Reed, Moby Grape, and traditional folk on her last release, The Covers Record, and has absorbed its history into her own. Broken down to their essentials, songs like "Good Woman," "Fool" and "Speak For Me" could have been written sixty years ago on a rural Mississippi back porch, but Chan ably personalizes the traditional so it sounds handmade for the modern day.

You Are Free represents a breathing history of music as seen through the eyes of a skilled musician on her way to becoming a national heirloom.

SELECT CAT POWER DISCOGRAPHY
Dear Sir 10"/CD (Runt [Italy], 1995)
Myra Lee LP/CD (Smells Like, 1996)
What Would The Community Think LP/CD (Matador, 1996)
Moon Pix LP/CD (Matador, 1998)
The Covers Record LP/CD (Matador, 2000)
You Are Free LP/CD (Matador, 2003)

The Covers Record March 21, 2000

"An undoubted talent...her chocolatey, sublime vocals evoke betrayal, heartache, and renewal more poetically than clumsy words ever could." —Melody Maker

Cat Power is the nom de plume of Chan Marshall, good cop. Her last record, Moon Pix, was released in September 1998 and was hailed 'round the world as a paragon of modern songwriting. On The Covers Record, Chan applies her remarkable interpretive skills to a wide variety of influences, accompanying herself on only piano or guitar. Almost gruesome in its melancholy (think Pink Moon, Drama Of Exile, Music For A New Society...), she de/reconstructs these songs often to the point of unrecognizability. The result is one of the most striking records we've heard in years, a masterpiece of mood, and another wonderful display of her extraordinary personality.

1) "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones
2) "Kingsport Town" - Traditional, from Bob Dylan version
3) "The Devil's Daughter" - Michael Hurley
4) "Naked If I Want To" - Moby Grape
5) "Swee Dee Dee" - Michael Hurley
6) "In This Hole" - Chan Marshall
7) "I Found A Reason" - Velvet Underground
8) "Wild Is The Wind" - Nina Simone
9) "Red Apples" - Smog
10) "Paths Of Victory" - Bob Dylan
11) "Salty Dog" - Traditional
12) "Sea Of Love" - Phil Phillips

In stores now.

Moon Pix September 22, 1998

INTRODUCTION TO THE UNRIVALED MASTER OF THE AMERICAN MYSTERY MOON PIX, BY M.T. KINNEY

Chan Marshall wrote very good songs for a very long time without anybody noticing. In 1974, one of her songs was made into the film ROCKETS, starring Buddy Bolden, and nobody noticed. In that film, Marshall herself played the professionaltrainer of the fighting cocks, and was just as laconic and offbeat an actor as she was a songwriter, and still nobody noticed.

And then came along MOON PIX.

From where? After all Marshall's years in the wilderness, writing good songs nobody noticed, why did MOON PIX come along to change it all, to force Marshall to come back for song after song, to make listeners suddenly notice this quirky, oddball, invigorating voice that had been in their midst unheard for so long?

I think I know where MOON PIX came from. I knew Marshall some in the last years of her life, and found her gentle and knowledgable and absolutley secure in her own persona, which makes her on the surface much different from that final creation of hers. Cat Power is anything but secure, has come nowhere near fighting her way to the calm plateau Marshall had reached. So where did she come from?

Out of the wildernees. I think MOON PIX came out of that same wilderness in which Marshall had labored for so long. Chan Marshall was never a failure, in the sense that her songs are very good songs, carefully wrought. Her career might stutter along in obscurity, but the songs were solid. And I think the only way she could go on doing that year after year, without either giving up or turning bitter, was that she'd trained herself to know that the work was very important but at the same time it didn't matter at all. And the extension from that was that all of life was very important but at the same time it didn't matter at all. I believe that particular self-induced schizophrenia got Marshall through the lean years and let her keep on singing, and I believe it ultimately produced MOON PIX, which doesn't so much share that worldview as live it.

Cat Power is a good cop, or at least she tries to be a good cop, but in her Miami, one good cop is about as useful as one good paper towel in a hurricane. Cat Power is constantly bested by people tougher and meaner than she is, she's contantly lied to and betrayed, she's constantly faced with the futility of what she's doing, and yet she keeps moving doggedly forward, and among the greater hopelessness she does bring off some modest- and very satisfying- successes.

I don't mean that MOON PIX was Chan Marshall's alter ego. I mean that Marshall's experience of her life led her to a certain attitude toward the world and her place in it, and this attitude, ironic without meaness, comic but deeply caring, informed every song she ever wrote, from her three records of autobiography through all the unoticed singles, and that finally MOON PIX embodied this attitude more completely than anything else she's ever done.

What Would the Community Think September 10, 1996