Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

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Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Exterior of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966 — but long known as the “Royal Albert Hall concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg — the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock & roll.

The artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall captured her own rendition of that night on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. Marshall, whose Cat Power catalog includes three acclaimed covers albums (2000’s The Covers Record, 2008’s Jukebox, and 2022’s Covers), has an especially strong affinity for the songwriter-poet. Like the original concert (and all of Dylan’s 1966 world tour), Marshall kept the first half of her set entirely acoustic, then went electric for the second half with the help of a full band. Throughout Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall approached every song in the set with both heartfelt reverence and a deep understanding of the delicate nature of song interpretation.