Another Side of Cat Power
Digging into Chan Marshall’s brilliant interpretation of a famous Bob Dylan concert
Over the course of her 30-odd years recording and performing as Cat Power, Chan Marshall has established herself as one of the modern era’s great song interpreters.
And following a trio of creatively curated cover albums (2000’’s The Covers Record, 2008’s Jukebox and 2022’s Covers), Marshall takes the full plunge into sonic mimicry with the recent release of her brilliant new live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, available now via Domino Recording Company.
“More than the work of any other songwriter,” says Chan Marshall, “Dylan’s songs have spoken to me, and inspired me since I first began hearing them at 5 years old.”
For fans of Bob, the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” is one of the most storied events of his near-65 year career. In fact, the show wasn’t at Royal Albert Hall at all, the product of a mislabeled bootleg from back in the day. The concert, rather, went down at Manchester Free Trade Hall, gaining infamy when Dylan switched from performing solo acoustic to being joined by The Hawks (soon to be called The Band) and playing a confrontational electric set that enraged the folkies and endeared him to the rockers forevermore. Cat Power’s take on this entire gig–recorded at the actual Royal Albert Hall on November 5, 2022–is supremely faithful to the original, right down to the “Judas!” catcall from the audience once she kicks into the electric part.
But Marshall manages to make the performance her own by channeling her own element into renditions of such Dylan essentials as “She Belongs to Me,” “Ballad of a Thin Man,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Like A Rolling Stone.” She knows these songs inside and out, and plays them with the supple grace of a scholar. For the multitude of acts who’ve attempted to cover Bob Dylan since he first came on the scene in 1959, Cat Power separates herself from the pack by balancing on that line of thin wild mercury with the grace of an actual feline. It feels like a genuine celebration of the music, ebulliently performed by Marshall and her band with the motions that suggest countless hours spent listening to that legendary fourth volume of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series.
Kudos go to the musicians onstage with her on this night, including guitarist Arsun Sorrenti, bassist Erik Paparozzi, multi-instrumentalists Aaron Embry (harmonica, piano) and Jordan Summers (organ, Wurlitzer) and drummer Josh Adams. Each man understood his assignment, and expertly aided Marshall in exacting her vision, especially when they break out into some of the rowdier numbers like “Tell Me, Momma,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.”
In her own spin on that maddening night in Manchester, Marshall unlocks the joy and warmth in places where there was once tension, making the performance feel more communal than confrontational.
“I had and still have such respect for the man who crafted so many songs that helped develop conscious thinking in millions of people, helped shape the way they see the world,” says Marshall. “So even though my hands were shaking so much I had to keep them in my pockets, I felt real dignity for myself. It felt like a real honor for me to stand there.”
Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert goes above and beyond the task at hand, giving you not only a reason to revisit your old copy of Dylan’s Live 1966 but savor its magic in the capable hands of true school Bob disciples.
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