Music as a healing force
The first album from musician Cat Power (stage name of Chan Marshall) comes after a hiatus of 6 years. The intervening time has been spent as a mom and in other pursuits. The album, “Wanderer,” reflects the stabilizing influence of being a parent and the need to keep striving in life.
“I think I’ve found what I never thought I would have. I’ve found what I never thought I would see, which is becoming a parent. There are no words for what I have now in my heart. But I’m still myself. The psychospiritual parts of me are always looking for truth, always looking for beauty in all that truth,” Ms. Power said in an interview with NPR.
Music also is a way to deal with a life that included a parent who had substance abuse problems and her own bouts of depression. “There’s so much pain that people carry and try to avoid. … That’s why music is so incredible,” she said.
Ms. Power hopes that people who listen to her album will realize that they are not alone. “We’re all on this ball of mud, this tiny speck, a ball of mud together,” she said. “We all feel all the same things. Maybe we don’t know how to communicate well. Maybe we’re learning. Maybe this lifetime, for all of us, is just a learning spell.”