Her first solo show was 1994 at CBGB’s gallery. Along with friends Tim Foljahn (Two Dollar Guitar) and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996). In 1995 she signed with Matador Records, and in 1996 she recorded in Memphis at Doug Easley’s now defunct studio, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, called “What Would the Community Think.” She spent the next years traveling the world, performing with a band and solo. In 1997 living and recording in Australia, she released the critically acclaimed self produced Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of the Dirty Three at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne.

After touring extensively, she returned to NYC and recorded her first “solo” album, The Covers Record (2000), at the now defunct Night Owl studios in NYC. This album is a collection of sparsely recorded cover songs by influential artists such as Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Nina Simone, Rolling Stones, and Michael Hurley. In 2003, she released Y ou Are Free , playing most all instruments herself, but featuring Dave Grohl on drums, Warren Ellis on violin, and Eddie Vedder. In 2006, the soul-influenced album T he Greatest followed. It was recorded with Memphis studio musicians, including Teenie Mabon Hodges and Flick Hodges. A second covers album Jukebox was recorded in 2008 with Judah Bauer from Blues Explosion, Jim White from Dirty Three, and Gregg Foreman from Delta 72 & Erik Papparozzi. Chan named the outfit: Dirty Delta Blues. In 2012 she released the self-produced S un , which opened at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest charting album of her career to date. The album incorporated electronica, in a self-proclaimed move from the “really slow guitar songs” she initially wrote for the album. Critics have noted the continuing evolution of Cat Power’s sound, with a “mix of punk, folk and blues” on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material.