It’s nearly thirty years since Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall AKA Cat Power had the one day session that would lead to the release of her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee. She’s released a total of eleven studio albums, three of which are covers albums that show her to be a brilliant interpreter of other people’s songs.
…Or should that be four covers albums? Last November she released Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, which was her recreation of Dylan’s legendary gig, recorded at that venue in November 2022. Very good it is, too. So tonight’s show focuses on that legendary performance from 1966. I don’t want to get too bogged down in the details of that event as so much has already been written about it (much of it by people who were actually alive at the time, unlike this middle-aged scribe). Yet tonight Ms. Marshall delivers a concert that shows how you can recreate an event without being restricted.
Famously that concert (which actually took place in Manchester not London, but due to a mislabelled bootleg the legend gathered steam) was split into two halves: acoustic and electric. Yes, tonight’s gig follows the exact same setlist and features the two halves. Much like a performance of a Shakespeare play, what enfolds is the same script, but the interpretation is different.
Joined by an acoustic guitar and a harmonica player, Power opens with ‘She Belongs To Me.’ Whilst there might have been impatience before she appeared due to the late start of the gig, once she’s started singing all is forgiven. There’s a respectful peace as she sings, and she makes these songs her own. In the first half of the gig, ‘Visions Of Johanna‘ seems to last forever in the best possible way and ‘Desolation Row‘ breaks your heart all over again. Yet when ‘Just Like A Woman‘ and ‘Mr. Tambourine Man‘ are played so gently that they might just lull you into a sense of slumber, within seconds the full band appear on stage and we’re into the second act without pausing for breath.
It was the second half of that (in)famous set that proved controversial to the folkies, but truly it was a sign of how much Dylan’s songwriting had grown. Dylan is often referred to as the songwriter’s songwriter with very good reason, because he is so damn great. Not long after the concert he was injured in a motorcycle accident, which slowed down his progress, but the previous four years of writing and recording had just been phenomenal. Yet Cat Power understands these songs so that ‘Leopard-skin Pillbox Hat,’ ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man‘ and for an epic close ‘Like A Rolling Stone‘ don’t feel like museum pieces, they’re still alive in the moment, still bewitching us, and taking on a new life in CP’s masterful reading. Almost everyone is on their feet by this point. She leaves us wanting more – no encores, none of her own or anyone else’s material, just a brilliant production.
Some folk master the art of songwriting, and some the art of interpretation. Cat Power has managed to do both, and it’s pretty awesome. If you get the chance to see her on this tour, grab it.
