Winding and weaving her way from one tale to the next, Chan Marshall, the musician better known as Cat Power, is an expert anecdotalist, diverging into tangents with enigmatic ease. A brief mention of the “sad opera music” on the V set unfolds into a discussion of the dismal state of global affairs—bridging the divide between peripheral and not-so-dinner-table-friendly topics. This has been one of Cat Power’s charms ever since her arrival on the indie music main stage in the mid-’90s. The product of a nomadic upbringing across the ’70s-era Bible Belt, Marshall grew up with her ear pinned to the transistor radio, absorbing the frequencies of funk and disco until stumbling one day across the messiah of songwriting, the Voice of Protest himself, Bob Dylan.

“When Bob would come on the radio, it snapped me to attention. I felt like he was singing to me. I felt like he was telling me a secret, something I had to figure out, and I liked that,” says Marshall. “I moved around a lot as a child—13 schools in 10 years. I have a 10th-grade education. I lived with different bands that my father and stepfather were in, and there was always music playing.” Having branched from soulful songwriting to Chanel show soundtracks over her three-decades-long career, Marshall has punctuated her artistry in the last 11 years with covers of musicians past and present, from vintage Nico and Billie Holiday to modern-day mainstays like Lana Del Rey and Frank Ocean. Cat Power continues to energize the old into new as evidenced by her latest release, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert.

Captured at London’s Royal Albert Hall in November 2022, Marshall’s performance recreated Dylan’s storied set at the venue complete with a live band and audience protests to boot. The singer-songwriter pays homage to her hero with a tracklist that is as timely today as it was at its inception in ’66. Much like Dylan, Marshall is no stranger to controversy. Her outspoken attitude has drawn attention from critics and fans alike, but she shrugs it off with indifference. “It’s our responsibility as artists to speak, at any chance we can, the truth of what’s out there,” Marshall says, recounting advice given to her by none other than Patti Smith. “We all get the blues and we all have joy—every single one of us on Earth. Art helps translate that thread that we all share, that humanity.”

“I want people to embrace these songs because we’re facing a real fucked-up moment in our history. The election’s coming up and we’ve got to fucking do something right very quickly,” says Marshall. “I want to offer a blanket, something to hold on to with this show. That’s probably why I do what I do—to know that I’m not alone.”

Cat Power will be performing at Carnegie Hall on February 14.

This story appears in the pages of V146: now available for purchase!

Photography Ioulex

Fashion Xander Ang

Makeup Yumi Mori (Kalpana NY)

Hair Kiyonori Sudo (L’Atelier NYC)

Stylist assistant Maggie Schutt

Location Brooklyn Grain