Shadows of doubt still linger
Noel Mengel
December 04, 2009 11:00pm
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/stor ... 21,00.html
Cat Power is working on a new record. She's a little worried about that. Excited, but a little worried. Her long-time fans might feel a slight wince of pain at this news or maybe have a little smile or probably both.
Because they know that Cat Power – the stage name of American songwriter Chan Marshall – is more prone than most to worry.
They might have seen her stage shows, which for a time there could be fascinating in a watching-a-car-crash kind of way, with her stage fright and a tendency to ramble between songs or stop them and start again or just to hide behind the piano.
She's been a lot better about that – "confident" is probably too much of a stretch – since establishing a rapport with her band Dirty Delta Blues, which includes old friends like Jude Bauer from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Jim White of The Dirty Three. They will be supporting her on her Australian tour next month.
Of course, Marshall's vulnerability and openness and honesty are part of her appeal, and why so many people care so much about her. When you mention to someone that you have interviewed Cat Power, the reply is usually: "How is she?"
She's well, actually, and very sweet and charming. And a little worried . . .
"It's just me this time," Marshall says of working on her new album of original material. Her last, 2008's excellent
Jukebox, was an album of cover versions and featured songs by Bob Dylan, James Brown and Hank Williams.
But the do-it-yourself method for her next album is not without pitfalls.
"When you write songs with a tape recorder, there's a lot of forwarding and rewinding and forwarding and rewinding and you forget to write down what's on certain tapes and you have no clue where you are with it."
What happened to the projected
Sun album of original music that was rumoured to be ready for release a year or two back?
"Instead of
Jukebox I was going to put out another record. I didn't get back to those songs and I kept writing more and more. I'm excited about that. I'm also frightened because some of them are sad again and I feel really nervous about that because . . ."
Because people will go, "There's that girl who used to write such sad songs writing sad songs again"? But you seem to have much more confidence in your music now. Is that because you have this great band?
"That's exactly right. When you have known people for a long time they are like allies. With Jim, our friendship is always first and foremost, and Jude has been a comrade for many years. I've never had that before."
That's another reason Marshall is worrying about making a record by herself.
"I don't know if I should push all these songs away and actually try to write and record it with the band.
"I don't know what to do. But I'm at a point where my heart tells me, Chan, you haven't played piano or guitar for four or five years, and I do have guilt about that. People ask me, 'When are you going to play by yourself?' I have problems with strange yearnings and guilt."
Doubts, you might have gathered, still play quite a role in Marshall's life. But she doesn't want people to get the wrong idea, that she is consumed by them.
She says the problem with her stage fright was really her frustration at playing and singing at the same time, worrying about timing and not messing up on her instrument. Still, she's not at ease even when she puts away the instruments and just concentrates on singing.
At 37, despite being loved by fans around the world, praised lavishly in the press and continuing to make a living out of music, she still can't seem to convince herself that she is really good at this.
Marshall had a childhood with a lot of upheaval and a lot of moving around. She dropped out of high school in Atlanta, Georgia, and started performing under the name Cat Power, but began to win notice when she moved to New York, releasing her first album in 1995.
By the time of 1998's
Moon Pix, recorded in Melbourne with Mick Turner and Jim White of The Dirty Three, she had really found her voice as a songwriter.
When I tell her she's doing a good job just telling the truth in her songwriting, she seems delighted.
"A song doesn't necessarily change the world and I think I used to think that it would back in my 20s. John Lennon wrote 'Imagine' and that didn't change the world. It just offered people comfort. That's what music can do. When people have told me, 'you have offered me some peace of mind', that's a great compliment."
Cat Power plays the Brisbane Powerhouse, December 31 and Coolangatta Hotel, January 2, with support by The Middle East.
