Once, Burning Man sounded like a ghost story: people trekking through sand dunes, building a city in the middle of nowhere, making a fire, then disappearing completely. When the festival's founder, Larry Harvey, first invited his friends to San Francisco's Baker Beach in 1986 to set an eight-foot wooden figure aflame, the ritual was just one man's spontaneous art.

What follows is an unabridged version of the Cat Power interview that appears in our December issue. Chan Marshall does not look troubled. On this late September afternoon, the fresh-faced and ponytailed 34-year-old singer, better known as Cat Power, perches on a windowsill outside Manhattan's Mercer Hotel, humming little ditties. Petting homely poodles.