The Wild Blazing Nighttime

Cat Power “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)”

Cat Power covering the entirety of Bob Dylan’s famous 1966 concert at the Royal Albert Hall live at the Royal Albert Hall seems like a weird stunt at first but the recording makes it clear that this an ideal vehicle for Chan Marshall’s voice, so much so that it’s like she was born specifically to do this. Marshall is a fine songwriter but her greatest gift is her gorgeous, warm, and vividly human voice, and she’s always shined brightest as an interpreter of other artists’ material.

Many of Marshall’s best covers are so radically reinterpreted that they only half resemble the source material, but her approach to the Dylan songs is extremely faithful to the arrangements Dylan and The Band played in the original show. This isn’t some kind of elaborate karaoke though – she’s very aware that the appeal of this music is largely in its feel and ambiance, and her trick here is immersing herself totally in this aesthetic and inhabiting the atmosphere as well as the words. The sound is basically the same but her presence transforms the music, her voice bringing a specifically feminine earthiness and soulful vulnerability to songs Dylan played as aloof or with some degree of ironic distance. She comes across a lot more earnest but also twice as weary.

“I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like A We Never Have Met)” in particular is a revelation with Marshall on vocals, with her bringing a sultry sensuality that emphasizes the sexiness in the song rather than its more petulant aspects. I don’t think it’s quite that the song is being sung from the perspective of the She in the lyrics, but I do think the likelihood that Marshall relates to both sides of this story adds a lot of depth to how she sings it.

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