Cat Power Biography

The American singer-songwriter known as Cat Power was born Charlyn Marie Marshall in 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia. Cat grew up influenced by her father, who was a blues pianist and musician, and so it was no big surprise that she would turn to music for her career aspirations even as a child. Listening to her father’s collection – which included blues greats such as Otis Redding and also classic rock such as The Rolling Stones – greatly influenced her style later in life.


After teaching herself to play guitar, Cat began performing around the Atlanta area with a number of fellow musicians, eventually adopting the name Cat Power for the name of the band. After leaving Atlanta for New York City alongside fellow musician Glen Thrasher, where she recorded her first independent single, “Headlights.” While opening for Liz Phair in 1994, Cat’s talents caught the interest of Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth fame. Shelley helped Cat record her first two albums – Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996) – and garner her first record deal with Matador Records.


In 1998, Cat Powers released her critically acclaimed album Moon Pix, and the music world really began to take notice. But it was the album The Greatest, released in 2006, that became Cat Power’s big breakthrough, rising into the top forty on the mainstream charts in the United States and also performing equally well internationally. The album featured the singles “The Greatest” and “Hate,” and set the stage for Juxebox (2008), which fared even better, outperforming The Greatest and charting in the top ten in three countries. Between 2005 and 2009, Cat Power also had a number of songs featured in major motion pictures, including: “Metal Heart” (in the film Desert Blue); “I Found a Reason” (included in the films – Saving Face, Dandelion, and V for Vendetta); “Sea of Love” (in the film Juno); “Paths of Victory” (in the film North Country); and “Troubled Waters” (in the film Perfect Stranger.) The song “The Greatest” was also included in 17 Again (2009) and Mammoth (2009.)


Although Cat Powers has not released any new material in recent years, she continues to write and perform. Her latest album, Sun, arrived in 2012 and her most successful to date.