Cat Power – Moon Pix

That Chan Marshall’s career managed to survive the 1990s intact is something of a miracle. Becoming increasingly visible after her Matador Records debut What Would the Community Think? (1996), she suffered through a number of stage-fright experiences that threatened to eclipse her talent; one Washington Post profile described her concerts as sometimes concluding “with Marshall exiting the stage in tears or a fit of blind rage.” Near the end of 1997, she traveled to Australia for a one-off gig and studio sessions with guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White, both of whom, along with violinist Warren Ellis, had earned international attention as part of the instrumental trio Dirty Three. The result, Moon Pix, was her breakthrough, a mesmerizing, minimalist folk rock album. “Have you ever been to that place?/You know the one I’m not supposed to say?,” Marshall wonders on “He Turns Down.” We’ve all been to that place; Marshall is one of the rare singers who can guide us through it. In hindsight, her cover of Bob Dylan’s version of “Moonshiner,” along with a picture of him in the inner sleeve performing in the mid-1960s, was a portent. Twenty-five years later, she recently released a full performance of Dylan’s 1966 set in London, The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. – Randall