Pitchfork

Preliminary word from the Matador camp is that performance-shy singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, is getting in touch with her Southern roots. She's currently recording the follow-up to 2003's You Are Free at the famed Ardent Studios in Memphis, which has played host to Led Zeppelin, Big Star, Isaac Hayes, the Replacements, and R.E.M. Marshall has teamed with producer Stuart Sikes, who worked with her on What Would the Community Think, and-- your interest will be piqued here-- a "group of old Memphis bluesmen, including members of Al Green's band," according to label publicist Nils Bernstein. The album is untitled for now and there is no word as to when it will be finished, but if all goes well its anticipated release date will be early in 2006.

With the exception of a one-off date at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on June 22, no Cat Power tour plans have been announced for the forseeable future. Given Marshall's history of, ahem, emotionally tumultuous shows, maybe it's just as well that she pour all her energies into learning the Memphis blues in the meantime. Heck, it worked for Elvis. If you want to look at things that way.

href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/c/cat-power/you-are-free.shtml">You Are Free