Applause ensued before Cat Power emerged onstage, but perhaps not in the way she intended. At more than 20 minutes late, and with a few impatient jeers from the crowd, she hobbled into view in heels and revealed that she had broken a toe on her right foot. Yet once she launched into an acoustic rendition of ‘She Belongs To Me’, all was forgiven, her voice smokier than a fire in a Marlboro factory and her unique imprint on Bob Dylan’s back catalogue adding a soulful verve some worlds apart from his well-known nasal wheeze. 

Cover versions have always been a major part of Power’s work, but this marks one of her most ambitious efforts yet: a track-by-track recreation of Dylan’s famous 1966 gig at the Royal Albert Hall, tracing his progression from acoustic folk to a fuller, rockier sound. It’s an act of impressive cultural archivism, recapturing the vitality of that era in his songwriting and resuscitating a time that Dylan himself has little interest in revisiting. 

Power teases out the poetic dexterity of Dylan’s lyrics, from the bleak majesty of ‘Desolation Row’ to the syrupy megahit ‘Just Like A Woman’, with an intricate knowledge of the impact his words can create. A shame, then, that she wasn’t match-fit for this performance, her voice failing her when she attempted to attack these songs to their fullest, the drama of Dylan’s music occasionally overshadowed by the fear that Power was pushing herself beyond her physical limit. She fought through the pain in her foot and the strain in her throat, never recreating the aloof defiance of Dylan’s imperial phase but still reminding audiences of an important moment in the annals of rock. 

Cat Power reviewed at Edinburgh Playhouse as part of Edinburgh International Festival.