Myra Lee

Cat Power aka Chan Marshall stops time. She sits at a piano or lays a guitar across her lap and whether it's a noisy club overflowing with drunks or a packed coffee house, she draws all the attention in the room and makes the world stop spinning.

Her recent album, the incredible 'The Greatest' has been picking up rave reviews all over the world and selling like hotcakes here in NZ as well. 'The Greatest' has made her a bona fide underground superstar, but there was a back story for her history…

NYC's most enigmatic chanteuse broke out, back to the audience [of course!], circa '93, announcing her arrival with a thoroughly gripping performance supporting Liz Phair. Soon she drafted Two Dollar Guitar mates Tim Foljahn and Steve Shelley to back her up and this produced a handful of recordings, of which the raw, lyrical 'Myra Lee' is undoubtedly the best.

Recorded virtually live in a Lower Manhattan rehearsal space, this seminal entry into indie rock still shimmers with innocent beauty. After all, Marshall is blessed with one of the most haunting voices this side of Crystal Gale and a chiming guitar style she should get more credit for; and on 'Myra Lee' she takes us on the kind of hypnotic sonic journeys we've come to expect of her.

'Myra Lee' was originally released back in '96 on Smells Like Records and alongside 10 original Cat Power tunes, there's a deconstruction of Hank Williams Snr's "Still In Love" that points the way to her exceptional 'Covers Album' of 2000.

Between world tours and mounting critical acclaim, the transplanted Atlantan seems to be moving at lightspeed, both physically and artistically. Yet wherever she may end up, one can always return to 'Myra Lee', where it all started in its subtly brute glory.