Twenty years ago, Cat Power released The Greatest. Despite its title, it’s not an album of her biggest hits. Rather, the title track tells the story of a boy who aspires to become a boxer; the title is almost certainly a nod to the nickname of legendary fighter Muhammad Ali. Made in Memphis with legendary soul musicians like Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, Leroy “Flick” Hodges, and Dave Smith, it was Power at her most accessible, and it brought her to new audiences, achieving her highest chart performance at the time. Critically well-received, it won the Shortlist Music Prize, and was named the 6th best album of that year in Rolling Stone.
In her recent appearance at the 9:30 Club, Cat celebrated the record’s anniversary, performing the album in full, along with a handful of other songs, including some terrific covers.
Power has come a long way from the shy performer she was at the beginning of her career, and she commanded the stage on Tuesday night, exuding charisma and authority. While she’s certainly more polished these days, she’s retained her vibrant personality in the process. Speaking as a single mother herself, she expressed her wish for her fellow single parents in the audience to “get some.”
In the later part of her set, she said uses a lyric book because “I’m not old, but when you have a baby your brain dissolves.” She addressed her mental health struggles, saying, “When you have PTSD, you’re never not thinking.” (I can relate: In a recent visit to my pain management specialist, I spotted a typo in their paperwork and asked, “Is there anything you can give me that’ll turn that off?”) She was witty, too, spinning a bit about how “I know you’re all hardcore punk rockers.” (I suppose this is true of me in the same way it’s true of Jonathan Richman, who I’ll be seeing next week.) And she was also sincere and heartfelt, telling the audience, “We’re all one big vibe together.” She really seemed to be enjoying herself, dancing a little jig at one point.
Watch Cat Power perform “The Greatest” live at Austin City Limits via YouTube:
Chan Marshall is nothing if not eclectic, and we got a taste of that in the covers she did. As much as she is a fantastic songwriter, Cat Power is one of the great song interpreters working today, having dedicated several albums to putting her own unique spin on classic tunes. This evening there was funk (James Brown’s “Try Me”), classic country (Kitty Wells’s “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”) and a Tin Pan Alley standard (Sammy Fain’s “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which was a fitting choice to end the show.) And all of these were done in fresh, interesting ways that made the songs hers. She rounded out her set with a few songs from her other albums: “Manhattan,” “Good Woman,” and “I Don’t Blame You.”
The band was terrific, but what we really came for was Cat Power’s voice, and she sounded magnificent. Three decades into her career, she’s evolved into a wonderful performer, able to deliver what’s always been excellent material for a live audience. It was a lovely night full of beautiful songs sung by one of the finest vocalists in contemporary music.
