Sun (rise)

Backyard Sunrise
24" x 12", oil on canvas, 2012

Cat Power
24" x 12", oil on canvas, 2012

To continue the thread I was on a few days ago while discussing Sugaring Season by Beth Orton...  ...Unlike Beth Orton, Cat Power does come to Miami, she actually lives in Miami, and the first date of her new tour—to support her new album Sun—is in her hometown of Miami, Florida. For me it's easier to get to this concert at the Grand Central (October 11, f.y.i.) than it is going to Mexico City, Brussels, or Amsterdam—downtown Miami is only a three hour drive from where I live so I'm going to go. And unlike Beth Orton too, I have seen Cat Power perform before, four times as a matter of fact, evenly divided over the last 12 years. But because of Sun, and also because my wife really likes the album, we are going. Maria and I, we bought Sun just a few days after it was released, we bought it in Miami to listen to it , for the first time, on our three hour drive across Alligator Alley back home. We played the whole CD three times over, every time a bit louder, and every time we liked it better. It's a great CD, Sun, but at first I was a little disappointed that some of the songs I had expected weren't on there. Among other new songs that had popped up on YouTube over the last few years I had hoped, for example, to hear the song Oh Time to finally be released. Somehow I think Cat Power hasn't given up on some of those melodramatic jewels, and I expect them on her next album then. My favorite tune of Sun might well be Silent Machine, that is actually one of those songs I've heard before, as an unofficial recording (it was called She Loves You So Hard then), but I also like Cherokee, the single and opening track, a whole lot too. Cherokee is the first Cat Power song to enter the Top 100 2012.

*And just in case, very unlikely as it is... If you happen to read this Chan, would you please consider putting me on the back-stage guest list, as I would love to talk to you after the show, and after 12 years of being a fan. Thank you so dearly... I also would like to invite you to my exhibition of Top 100 paintings in the gallery of Pinecrest Gardens in Miami. Opening reception: November 2, 2012, artist's talk: December 9. Featured will at least two portraits of you, together with scores of other great musicians. Love you,
Sincerely,
Berry van Boekel