Devoted to Dylan – A conversation with Cat Power
If you love folk, blues and indie rock, you’ll love singer-songwriter Cat Power. On 4 June, she brings a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time, Dylan ’66, at The Glasshouse.
Bob Dylan’s poetic, insightful lyrics have long challenged the status quo. His mid-sixties tour stirred controversy as he shifted from acoustic folk music to electric rock, upsetting many of his folk fans.
We sat down with Cat to hear about her devotion to Dylan and her upcoming show.
- How did your connection to Bob Dylan begin?
Hearing Dylan’s songs as a little girl, I heard something in his lyrics that mystified me. It felt like he was revealing secrets.
- When did you first discover Dylan’s 1966 live recordings?
I saw Don’t Look Back (a 1967 documentary about Dylan’s 1965 UK tour) when I was 20. I was upset that a true artist like Dylan was catching hell for doing something original and outside the folk norm. I was ashamed of those fans yelling at him and the musicians, The Hawks (later changing their name to The Band). It was infuriating.
“Hearing Dylan’s songs as a little girl, I heard something in his lyrics that mystified me. It felt like he was revealing secrets.”
- What was the inspiration behind interpreting Dylan ’66 into your live show?
I was inspired by Dylan delivering incredible songs still. At the time, America was losing women’s rights, banning books and erasing African American history from schools, so I felt I should record the album as a document.
For the kids, I thought my record might fall into the hands of the next human rights person, the next brilliant artist, the next revolutionary, the next Dylan. I wanted to offer Bill and The Band some grace for the months they got booed during those songs. I had no idea Timothée Chalamet would be coming out with a Dylan biopic about the same period.
- What’s one of your favourite songs in the set?
I adore many Dylan songs for different and heavy reasons, but I really love Tambourine Man. It reminds me of how time can stand still but also thrash forward from the past and then travel back again. It’s solitarily graceful, hopefully, triumphantly steadfast, perhaps stubborn amongst a sea of indifferent ignorance and supposed bliss, sounding like a painting of a dream: all living parts moving, yet fixed, stranded in time, illuminating.
- What memories do you have of performing in the North East of England?
I have many fond memories, but at my age, they all blend into several pictures: some nice, some gritty, some beautiful. I probably have photographs somewhere of fascinating things, but mostly, it’s the accents – I love all the regional accents!
The English countryside, little towns, castles here and there and immense history are alluring to witness. I could spend forever driving on old roads, in an old car under cloudy skies, looking for a warm pub with a piano.
- What was the last awe-inspiring gig you went to?
Bob Dylan on 31 October 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the most beautiful I’d ever heard Bob sing. His enunciation, cadence… it was as if his voice channelled back to exactly 1966. I was breathless. I cried because I could instantly hear all the pain in the world in his tone as his lyrics described it’s alright, it’s just the end.
