Adelaide Festival<\/p>\n
Music Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert<\/p>\n
The acclaimed Cat Power and a set of songs unparalleled in almost sixty years. What could be better? Unfortunately, among many musical highpoints, there are lows and hesitations, leaving both singer and audience frequently on edge.<\/p>\n
Written by Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
If you want to hear Bob Dylan at his best, there couldn\u2019t be a better setlist than the Royal Albert Hall concert in 1966. Never mind that it was actually recorded in Manchester, it became the Faberge egg of bootleg vinyl back in the days before Napster changed everything. And it contained the infamous moment in the electric set when a disgruntled folk music fan yelled out \u201cJudas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan\u2019s program was divided into two sections- an acoustic segment with just His Bobness plus guitar and harmonica. The second featured the soon to be legendary musicians known as The Band (on this Manchester night, minus Levon Helm). The songs, with just three exceptions, are from Dylan\u2019s most innovative albums of the middle 1960s –Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited<\/em> and Blonde on Blonde<\/em>.<\/p>\n It was an inspired idea for Cat Power aka Chan Marshall to record the bootleg material in its entirety. Her powerful, expressive voice is a match for the lyric density and singular phrasing of his compositions. Releasing the CD in November 2023, she has toured the show intermittently since.<\/p>\n Appearing onstage under sprays of spotlights, Marshall motions to dim them as low as possible. Accompanied on acoustic guitar and harmonica, she opens with \u2018She Belongs to Me\u2019 followed by \u2018Fourth Time Round\u2019. Both sung slowly and reflectively, with guitarist Henry Munson watching her closely, coaxing her to stay in sync.<\/p>\n During the Dylan masterpiece \u2018Visions of Johanna\u2019 \u2013\u2018Ain\u2019t it just like the night\/to play tricks when you trying to be so quiet\u2019 – Marshall bends the phrasing and becomes distracted, saying \u2013\u2018I don\u2019t know which song hurts me the most.\u2019 She has endured both physical and mental health problems over a number of years, including a catastrophic loss of vocal strength which threatened her career. But this seems to be a different kind of pain.<\/p>\n Over the rest of the set the tempo becomes more weary and anxious \u2013 \u2018Desolation Row\u2019, already arduously dirge-like in Dylan\u2019s version, is further diminished. \u2018Just like a Woman\u2019 is problematic, and \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019, a song she clearly cherishes, has Munson manoeuvring to keep in rhythm while Marshall keeps referring to her music stand to keep track of the lyrics \u2013 as she does throughout most of the performance.<\/p>\n It is disconcerting set. As, according to online reports, they frequently are. There have been many lovely moments, the accompanists are excellent, the harmonica playing faithful to Dylan\u2019s breathy \u2018hands-free\u2019 technique. The audience is eager to applaud and encourage, even as we are anxiously wondering \u2013\u2018Are you OK ?\u2019<\/p>\n The larger six-piece band assembles for the electric set that is famous for being infamous \u2013 despite the fact that Dylan had already traded in his folksinger incarnation eighteen months earlier. And, propelled by psychedelics and amphetamine, he created songs the like of which had never been heard before.<\/p>\n \u2018Tell Me Momma\u2019 is first and the sound is colossal. It lifts the event and Chan Marshall also. She sways to the rhythm as gun guitarist Munson switches on the voltage, Jordan Summers plays cavernous chords on the Hammond B3, matched by Christopher Joyner on piano. and a lock-step rhythm section. As Dylan did in 1966, they play his early folk blues songs with the full apparatus of rock and roll \u2013 \u2018I Don\u2019t Believe You\u2019, \u2018Baby Let Me Follow You Down\u2019, and \u2018One Too Many Mornings\u2019<\/p>\n Chan Marshall finds her Cat Power again with a driving rendition of \u2018Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat\u2019 and – an absolute highlight \u2013 \u2018Ballad of a Thin Man\u2019, Dylan\u2019s sneeringly contemptuous portrait of a suburban conformist now becomes a raucous blues rescue mission for the beleaguered Mr Jones.<\/p>\n Marshall then takes the mic to greet and thank an audience still signalling support and appreciation. And things unravel even more. She digresses and rambles and it is distressing to see her difficulty. She discloses and overshares, moving between regret and optimistic promises. The band looks on, unable to turn things around.<\/p>\n It is only when she announces the closer \u2013 \u2018Like a Rolling Stone\u2019 – that both band and singer can conclude as magnificently as they deserve. Marshall\u2019s singing regains strength and her tribute to the one of the most innovative and original songwriters of the 20th<\/sup> century can be seen for the achievement it is.<\/p>\n Published in slightly edited form in InDaily March 11, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n