W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Cat Power – Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert   2023 proved to be a bit of a retro year for me.  I found myself listening to much more older music than I would normally.  Not to say that I neglected the new stuff but in a year when Dylan and The Grateful Dead are in my top 3 most listened artists for the year as well as having gotten to see such musical classics as Dylan, Springsteen and The Dead (albeit it was Dead & Co.) in the same year, I clearly spent a good amount of time in the rear view mirror.  My top 10 this year displays this trend as well.  Normally I would never include a covers album (or a live album for that matter), yet here I am placing Cat Power’s 2023 release in my top 3.  In this case it was a no brainer.  First of all, Cat is one of today’s best interpreters of other songwriter’s works.  (I’d almost go as far as to say that she’s a modern day Nina Simone in that respect).  Second, she has the ability to nail Dylan even more so and her interpretations on this collection manages to both make these songs not only very personal but also manage to maintain Dylan’s intended essence.  These songs (especially the acoustic ) are haunting, beautiful, poignant, heartfelt and disturbing all at once.  Power manages to present this historic concert and conceptualize everything which Dylan (and the Hawks) threw at their audience back in 1966 yet still makes it her own.  I personally can’t wait to experience Cat do these songs live in 2024.