Chan Marshall is running behind schedule. It's two in the afternoon and the 35-year-old singer-songwriter who performs under the name Cat Power has twice pushed back the time of our interview. As I'm heading toward her South Beach apartment, I receive yet another text message. "Since I'm late and u gotta car, how bout driving to Joe's Take Away on Washington, parking, going in there and grabbin a couple chopped salads with no onion and extra peanuts, a couple lobster reubens, a couple select crab claws, and 4 fresh brewed iced teas, yes? We can have a picnic at my pool? Cool? Or mad at me?"

When I arrive with the food, I find the floor of Marshall's new, two-story condo covered with boxes yet to be unpacked. Mona, her beloved French bulldog and traveling companion, weaves her way around the room, sniffing the clutter as if encountering it for the first time. Framed photographs of the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan—as well as a few of her own minimalist, abstract paintings—await final placement on the freshly painted walls. With the help of two friends, Marshall has been furiously attacking the pile of her possessions all morning. "We were trying to get it done before you got here," she explains with a sigh, then switches into a raspy cartoon dog voice. "Mona, you're so cute, Mona!"

For all the seeming chaos, it turns out that my visit coincides with a rare sedentary period in Marshall's life. By her reckoning, this current three-week hiatus from touring is the first time in over 10 years that she's been in any one city for so long. "That is," she amends, "If you don't count the two months in rehab."