Cat power

Childhood

Charlyn Marie Marshall is the daughter of a blues pianist and part-time wandering musician Charlie Marshall. The blood of the Irish , Germans , Jews and Cherokee Indians flows in her veins. Soon after her birth (January 21, 1972), her parents divorced, giving her daughter the opportunity to live in two houses and often move from place to place. Charlene traveled the entire American south, lingering for a long time in Georgia , Tennessee , North and South Carolina . In later interviews, recalling her strange childhood, the artist repeatedly said that this nomadic life prepared her for the tour costs of her future profession.

She finished school in Atlanta , where her first performances in clubs and bars began, in which she was helped by Glen Thrasher, Mark Moore (Mark Moore). In 1990, together with Thrasher, Sheng moved to New York , in which the Brooklyn scene, or rather, the premises of the former warehouse, became her debut scene.

In those days, she preferred to improvise on stage, to navigate according to circumstances. For example, one day, when opening a concert by Astro Man, Sean went out to the audience with a two-string guitar, which she tortured for about 15 minutes, experiencing the patience of the audience. After one of these experiments on the audience, she met with members of God Is My Co-Pilot, who helped her prepare the debut single “Headlights” and released it on her own label Making of Americans with a run of as many as 500 copies.

Early work (1992-1994)

The first two Cat Power records are due to Steve Shelley of the Sonic Youth team and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar. They attended the Liz Phair concert, where Marshall performed as the opening act. It was the year 1994. A few months later the CD “Dear Sir” (1995) was published, and a year later his brother “Myra Lee” (1996) appeared. The artist least of all thought about how to please someone’s tastes, to meet some standards. Both recordings are a splash of her experimental excitement, the output of the craziest ideas that have nothing to do with either the song structure or the well-known styles.

Matador records (1996 - present)

In 1996, the singer signed with Matador Records and released her third album, the studio album "What Would the Community Think", which was reinforced by the single and video clip "Nude as the News". This song had some success with the audience and was presented on numerous compilations that were released both in the USA and in Europe. At the end of 1996, Cat Power spent three months on the road, touring in support of the release, managing to get so full of show business during this time that immediately after the tour decided to run away from this hype.

In early 1997, she could be seen in Portland , where she got a job as a nanny. A few months later, along with Bill Callahan, her then boyfriend, a musician by profession, who performed under the stage name Smog, Sean moved to a quiet farm in South Carolina. The plan to temporarily retire and live in silence was only partially realized. During one of the sleepless nights, Sean Marshall was visited by inspiration and she wrote several new songs. These were the first bricks that laid the foundation for the new long-play Moon Pix, which the singer recorded in Melbourne in 11 days. In the studio, she was accompanied by Mick Turner (Mick Turner) and Jim White (Jim White), members of Dirty Three. The release took place in January 1998. The album was welcomed by critics and received the attention of the indie rock community.

However, the prospect of another tour marathon with a daily repetition of the same repertoire attracted little Cat Power. After working out a series of promotional concerts in support of “Moon Pix”, she came up with another program: she composed the musical accompaniment for the silent movie Passion of Joan of Arc . The new show included both her own compositions and several cover versions. In the process of selecting and processing foreign material, Cat Power got the idea to record a selection of covers. After her, Sheng released two more albums and the album "The Greatest" with new material, and not with a selection of the best, as you might think because of its name.

Cat Power's live shows, most reminiscent of natural chaos, are the timeless watershed line for her fans. They shock some, delight others, and others are puzzled. Songs end and begin suddenly, breaking off without any obvious logic, and sometimes, on the contrary, smoothly flow one into another, without interruption, without beginning and end. The singer herself understands perfectly well that her performances are not drawn to an impeccable show, and, occasionally, she pauses and apologizes to the audience for her small mistakes. She always tries to make warm contact with the audience, jokes, tells stories, although, according to her, she often experiences panic in the scene .

• Dear Sir (1995)
• Myra Lee (1996)
• What Would the Community Think (1996)
• Moon Pix (1998)
• The Covers Record (2000)
• You Are Free (2003)
• The Greatest (2006)
• Jukebox (2008)
• Dark End of the Street (2008)
• Sun (2012)
• Wanderer (2018)

In the fall of 2006, to the surprise of many who dealt with the creativity and personality of Cat Power, she announced that she was accepting the offer from Coco Chanel's house and became the face of Karl Lagerfeld's new collection. According to the honored couturier, only someone like Shen Marshall deserves this and only she can look glamorous with a cigarette in her lips.

• Official site