1992–1995: Beginnings Marshall's first instrument was a 1950s
Silvertone guitar, While working in a pizzeria, she began playing music in Atlanta in the late-1980s with Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for
jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly; after seeing a man wearing a
Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power", Marshall chose
Cat Power as the name of the band. While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and
Opal Foxx Quartet. In a 2007 interview, she explained that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends "to get drunk and take drugs". A number of her local peers became entrenched in heroin use. One of her shows during this period was as the support act to
Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for 15 minutes. Around this time, she met the band
God Is My Co-Pilot, who assisted with the release of her first single, "
Headlights", in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label. Marshall recorded simultaneously her first two albums
Dear Sir and
Myra Lee in December 1994 in a small basement studio near
Mott Street in New York City, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and
Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for
Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up
Dear Sir and
Myra Lee, released respectively in October 1995 and March 1996. Although
Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, it is more the length of an
EP.
1996–2003: Early Matador releases In 1996, Marshall signed to
Matador Records. In September of that year, she released her third album,
What Would the Community Think, which she recorded in
Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1996. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "
Nude as the News" about the abortion she had at the age of 20. Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases. After the release of
What Would the Community Think, Marshall took a trip to South Africa. After this, she left New York City and moved to
Portland, Oregon, where she found temporary employment as a babysitter. In the spring of 1997, Marshall relocated with her then-boyfriend, musician
Bill Callahan, to a rural
farmhouse in
Prosperity, South Carolina. After experiencing a
hypnogogic nightmare while alone in the farmhouse, Marshall wrote six new songs that would go on to make up the bulk of her following album,
Moon Pix (1998), which she recorded at Sing Sing Studios in
Melbourne, Australia, with backing musicians
Mick Turner and
Jim White of the Australian band
Dirty Three.
Moon Pix was well received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "
Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition.
Rolling Stone would later describe it as her 'breakthrough' record. In 1999, Marshall performed in a series of shows where she provided musical accompaniment to the
silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and covers, some of which would be released on Marshall's fifth album,
The Covers Record in 2000. The songs were recorded during two sessions in the summer of 1998 and fall of 1999. Additionally, she performed eleven covers during a
Peel session broadcast on June 18, 2000, that included own interpretations of
Bob Dylan's "
Hard Times in New York Town" and
Oasis's "
Wonderwall". Her contract with Matador for 2000's
The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a
Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder. In February 2003, Marshall released
You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as
Eddie Vedder,
Dave Grohl, and
Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on
the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "
He War". Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia. During this period, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, and a 2003
The New Yorker article suggested: "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem. On January 22, 2006, Marshall released her seventh album,
The Greatest, a
Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring veteran Memphis studio musicians, including
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges,
Leroy Hodges, David Smith, and Steve Potts. The album debuted at 34 on the
Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." It was also named the number 6 best album of 2006 by
Rolling Stone Magazine. Simultaneously, Marshall collaborated with several other musicians on different projects, including
Mick Collins on a recording of
Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film
Wayne County Ramblin; a duet with singer-model
Karen Elson on an English cover of
Serge Gainsbourg's "
Je t'aime... moi non plus" for the tribute album
Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (2007); lead vocals on the
Ensemble track "Disown, Delete"; and a reworked version of "Revelations" with
Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album ''
Yes, I'm a Witch''. In the fall of 2006, Marshall became a celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from
Chanel, after being seen by
Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the
Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a
Purple feature. In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of
Ethan Hawke's film
The Hottest State, recording with
Jesse Harris and
Terry Manning, and the
Academy Award-winning film
Juno. The same year, she made her feature film debut acting in
My Blueberry Nights opposite
Jude Law, appearing in a small role. She also appeared in the role of a postal worker in
Doug Aitken's
MoMA installation
Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Also in 2007, she featured on
Faithless' album track
A Kind of Peace. , London, 2008 In January 2008, Marshall released her second covers album,
Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the
Blues Explosion,
Gregg Foreman of
The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and
Jim White of
Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby", Marshall's tribute to
Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the
Moon Pix song "Metal Heart". She also collaborated with
Beck and producer
Danger Mouse on the album
Modern Guilt (2008): She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year. In 2013, Cat Power's version of "
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was used in
Apple's Christmas commercial "Misunderstood". In December 2008, she released
Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the
Jukebox sessions. In 2009, she provided backing vocals on
Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by
Neko Case on the 2009 album
Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011, she also featured as guest vocalist on "Tonight You Belong to Me" on
Eddie Vedder's
Ukulele Songs.
2012–present: Recent activity , Alberta, 2016 In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in
Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the country over its conflict with
Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the
Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album,
Sun, was released in September 2012, after releasing the lead single "Ruin" as a free download the previous June. The album features prominent
electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a
review published on September 4, 2012, on
Consequence of Sound,
Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-
star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the
Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week. In July 2015, it was announced that Marshall would be providing narration for the documentary
Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by
Amy J. Berg, which revolves around the life of
Janis Joplin and premiered at the 2015
Venice Film Festival. On television, Marshall starred on
China, IL, in the hourlong musical special "
Magical Pet". Marshall performs three original songs written by creator
Brad Neely. On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date. On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Marshall would perform a
Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at
Sydney Opera House, which occurred from May 25 to June 16 and featured album collaborators
Jim White and
Mick Turner. After twenty-two years with Matador, Cat Power left them and signed with Domino records a year later for her 10th studio album,
Wanderer, which was released in 2018
. It was her first to not be released on Matador Records since 1996. According to Marshall, Matador were not happy with the recordings for Wanderer, they wanted her to rerecord it and make it sound more commercial. She released two more singles, "
Woman" featuring
Lana Del Rey on August 15 and a cover of
Rihanna's "
Stay" on September 18, before the album was released on October 5, 2018, through
Domino Recording Company. She embarked on a world tour in promotion of the album in September. Power embarked on a US arena tour in August 2021 supporting
Alanis Morissette and
Garbage. She was a last-minute addition to the lineup, after original opening act
Liz Phair canceled her appearances. Power contributed four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2021 film
Flag Day. Her eleventh studio album,
Covers, was released on January 14, 2022, and was supported by a US tour. Marshall released her first live album on November 10, 2023,
Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. The album is a recreation of Bob Dylan's
1966 concert at Manchester Free Trade Hall, although early bootlegs mislabeled the concert as being recorded at the
Royal Albert Hall. In February 2024, Marshall embarked on a tour in support of the album, in which she will recreate Dylan's 1966 performance at venues across the United States and Europe. ==Personal life==