A thoughtful, and dare I say sober lead article about a musician! Who knew?

In all seriousness, if Chan Marshall can keep her demons at bay for many more years, we are looking at a singer-songwriter with not only the required longevity but equal parts gravitas, warmth, artistry and soul enough to approach the elusive "l-word" status ("legendary", that is); we may well be in the midst of one of popular music's great careers, and yet most of us are oblivious. That she has not been generally afforded this level of respect can be attributed to a combination of her own stagefright-driven and alcohol-fueled antics, a general and fairly understandable distrust of the indie rock ghetto (the boundaries of which she has been pushing at more vigorously of late) on the part of contemporary music critics and the music industry's continuing and bafflingly innate sexism. I've written about her music elsewhere, so I won't elaborate, but I'm pleased to see a fellow music writer -- and at Salon, no doubt! -- acknowledge and tease out some of the appeal of this compelling musician (and give props not only to her latest record, but to the astonishing, heartwrenching "Good Woman" and the entirety of the darkly genius Moon Pix).

Thanks for this, and good luck from a fellow struggler to Chan in her struggles.

As someone who played and sang original music to audiences for many years, it's rare to see an article that gets close to expressing what that could possibly be like. This did. Chan is a heroin... alchohol is tough to beat... it's really harder than anybody knows to get up in front of strangers and empty your soul, rewarding in many ways... horrifying in many ways. The quotes from Chan were very well picked and maybe I'm just a weakling, but they made me cry. Cry in triumph.

I just love Chan so much, and I was jumping for joy when I saw this article on salon. Thank you! thank you! thank you! Although it did make me sad that I didn't go to the Irving Plaza show. I had tickets. :(

I have seen Cat Power in concert several times from 1996 up until now. Each show was a surprise. If she performed twice in one night, you see the later show because the early show was always practice. If you wanted to talk to Chan, you see the early show, she loved to talk to the audiences when she practiced. Some fans would get very upset if she did not play a single song to completion.....I say to them, "go home and listen to the album." Cat Power is the show....her actions, her thoughts, her presence was what I payed to enjoy. She is a very complex artist with complex music. She deserves a huge allowance of performance freedom! Her recordings and her live shows are two completely different entities. I believe that as the audience we need to be more open to the artists experiences and personalities than to demand a replica performance of the recorded album. Cat Power forever.......

OK, we've heard from her entire gushing subjective fan base. Four letters. Now let's hear about Cynthia Joyce. What's her relationship to Cat? What kind of favor does Cat's publicist owe her now? Because this is just an article about some drunk slut weepy balladeer who really can't perform live until she's off the bottle for a while, who has the usual yiny tight (pardon the pun) bunch of fan(atic)s who worship and explain away her every word. Reminds me of the crowd following Brian in Monty Python's "Life of Brian."

Nice article on someone who deserves critical acclaim and is finally conquering her demons. Although calling someone "helplessly eccentric" is a little patronizing.

And to the person who was ever so bored by this article, yet most likely read it through to the end: I'm always amazed by the bullshit misogyny that crops up whenever anonymous posts are allowed on a forum. Must be a tough life, calling women "drunk sluts" - when the article doesn't reference her sexuality at all, except to mention a long-term relationship - and sending out wishes for them to kill themselves because you're... what? So disturbed by her happiness? Wishing Salon hadn't given her air time? Jesus, what a sad and lonely bastard you must be. Poor baby. Didn't mommy love you enough? Or was it your ball-busting ex who ruined your life? Are you even a man? God knows women can sling the same woman-hating bullshit that you do. Whether you're male or not, you're a poor excuse for a human being. So fuck off back to your pathos and hatred and jealousy of someone your petty rant can't even begin to touch.

They cut off before the end. It didn't really bother me a lot. Just not my cup of tea.

I love reading about Marshall, but this article pissed me off. I disagree that Marshall has some obligation to do well on stage or that if she doesn't do well, she owes some explanation or apology. I disagree that her albums are sad or all sad, and I resent the insinuation that sad songs are bad or less valuable than any other music. It shows Cynthia Joyce has a very thin understanding of what Cat Power's music is all about. Marshall writes about what she sees is the human condition in her own life and in the lives of the people around her, glorious and messy and beautiful and tricky, something with which to struggle. It's a shame that Cynthia didn't invest herself enough to understand that this kind of music can be anything but depressing or disheartening. It's a simplistic, superficial view.

I feel terrible for Marshall that she ever felt she needed to say that her audience doens't own her and that she feels poorly about her live perfomances. Cynthia Joyce said that Marshall had explaining to do. Bullshit. Marshall's just a poor performer live. So what? So is Liz Phair. So are a lot of musicians who don't use black boxes and other tricks. Fuck people who don't understand. The fact that Marshall is an alcoholic seems to have given Cynthia Joyce a high horse she shouldn't have bothered riding.

That said, I saw Cat Power in Pittsburgh in July. Marshall was awkward and off and utterly endearing. I barely recognized her from her recorded work, and that doesn't change my opinion of her as an artist. I didn't enjoy the show, and I didn't particularly love the new work. So much for sobriety.