During last summer’s brief teaser tour, CHAN MARSHALL (aka CAT POWER) took her new DIRTY DELTA BLUES band (replacing the seasoned MEMPHIS RHYTHM BAND, which was comprised of studio vets who played with the likes of AL GREEN et al) to test out her yet-to-be released second batch of interpreting others’ songs. Some fans expecting a set list full of 2006’s The Greatest were non-plussed (only two were played that night, so she spent the rest of the time playing new material), but the reinvention of Chan from stark, fidgety, harrowing, and often unpredictable indie rocker to full-fledged soulstress was not a one-off change of clothes. Now that the record’s been out for mass consumption, the three-quarter’s full house was certainly more receptive to the successful sequel to her 2000 release The Covers Record.
Striding onto the stage with her white capezios, black jeans, shirt, vest and black mesh gloves, Chan was smiling from the start, clearly happy to be performing. I’m not going to dwell on her publicized battle (and subsequent conquering, based on these two shows I’ve seen) of inner demons, but they certainly appear to be a thing of the past. Choosing the haunting BILLIE HOLIDAY cover of “Don’t Explain” was a fairly odd choice to lead with, but it would set the tone that this evening would be a low-key, sit-down affair, more suited to blue halos of cigarette smoke swirling about an aged tin ceiling of a Beale Street dive than the fairly cavernous theater. At one point, keyboardist GREGG FOREMAN got up from his bench and exhorted the crowd “to get involved, it’s not a sit-down show.” Chan promptly took the reins and told us that we don’t have to listen to him, and to sit down.
She’s not lost her dusky vocal style, hinting at equal measures of raw-edged bourbon, jimson weed, and DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, and it came alive during readings of “New York”, “Ramblin’ (Wo)man,” and especially “Lord, Help The Poor And Needy.” She left the stage a while during this one to give the band a bit of room to stretch out into a 12 bar blues vamp, and JUDAH BAUER formerly of the JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION had a bit more glide and less bite than his previous gig, though it matched the music perfectly, gently locking in with drummer JIM WHITE, continuing his on-loan duties from THE DIRTY THREE in support of Chan.
“Aretha, Sing One For Me” was the most upbeat song of the night, and would stand alone as such; other fare such as SMOKEY ROBINSON’s “Tracks Of My Tears” would continue the blue tone of the evening. The line “take a good look at my face” was a tad ironic in that even with her new-found enthusiasm and self-confidence, she did spend a fair bit of time at the edges and sides of the stage, sometimes even sitting down, and the stage lighting was primarily soft and back-lit, leaving her in the shadows (thankfully she didn’t leave us photographers in the lurch and gasping for light, as the first three or four songs focused a balcony-mounted spotlight on her to make our jobs easier). The encores were pulled from The Greatest, with Chan hinting at her previous troubles prior singing to “Lived In Bars,” where she said it was the same song/different singer and made it a truly cathartic reading. Which leads me to a minor complaint: I can certainly understand why she’d be happy to focus on her new life and songs, but when an artist has such a strong body of work to pull from, ignoring the previous five strong to outstanding records is shame, even though they hearken back to a sound (and a time) that Chan’s left behind, seemingly for good.
