Amoeba Music

Singer/songwriter Cat Power (born Charlyn Marie Marshall in Atlanta, Georgia) rose from high school dropout, to indie folk-rock star, to controversial media darling in just over a decade. Marshall began playing with friends in the experimental music scene in Atlanta, but it was after moving to New York City in 1992 that she began recording...More

Singer/songwriter Cat Power (born Charlyn Marie Marshall in Atlanta, Georgia) rose from high school dropout, to indie folk-rock star, to controversial media darling in just over a decade. Marshall began playing with friends in the experimental music scene in Atlanta, but it was after moving to New York City in 1992 that she began recording and solidifying her reputation as a live performer. When she opened for Liz Phair in 1994, she met drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Two Dollar Guitar's Tim Foljahn at the show. The two brought her into the studio that December and they recorded two albums together in one day - Dear Sir (Runt Records, 1995) and Myra Lee (Smells Like Records, 1996).

In 1996, Cat Power signed to Matador Records and released What Would the Community Think, but at the age of 24 she decided to retire, in part due to her crippling stage fright. Her retirement wouldn't last, and in 1998 she released Moon Pix (Matador), followed by 2000's The Covers Record (Matador). The Covers Record charted at number 44 on the Billboard Heatseekers and many of the album's songs found their way into movies and television shows, cementing Cat Power in the minds of the general public. Her first album of new material in almost five years, You Are Free (Matador), was released in February 2003. You Are Free, which featured guest appearances by Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl, hit number 105 on the Billboard 200 and gave her the opportunity to make her television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. She has admitted to having had a troubled relationship with alcohol at this time and, despite the success of You Are Free, she celebrated her depression by smashing her Silvertone guitar to pieces in a hotel room. Cat Power’s live shows were also erratic. She was known to stop in the middle of a song and start another, or simply end a show after playing only a few songs. But Marshall’s unpredictable and volatile behavior never seemed to have a negative impact on her popularity.

Cat Power changed direction musically on her seventh studio album, The Greatest (Matador, 2006), which featured Memphis soul musicians Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy "Flick" Hodges, Dave Smith and others, and was released to eager fans and critical acclaim. She followed The Greatest with another album of covers, Jukebox (Matador), in 2008. On Cat Power's latest album, Sun (Matador, 2012), Marshall moved away from the Memphis soul sound and instead wrote, played, recorded and produced the entirety of the album by herself. The album, which includes a duet with Iggy Pop, has been widely celebrated by critics and fans and was one of Amoeba's best selling albums of 2012.