Guitar World Feature

Cat Popper Talks Writing, Self-Doubt, and Going Solo with “Maybe It’s All Right” (Guitar World, April 22, 2021) In her Guitar World feature, Cat Popper opens up about writing her first solo single, “Maybe It’s All Right,” after years of touring with icons like Jack White, Norah Jones, and Levon Helm. Burned out and sidelined by the pandemic, she found herself unexpectedly drawn back to songwriting—despite what she calls the “mean voices” in her head urging her to sound more like someone else. The song emerged as a quiet act of defiance and self-trust: a meditation on uncertainty and the faint, stubborn hope that maybe things really will be okay. After playing it for Jesse Malin, who encouraged her to release it, the track found a home on Velvet Elk Records. Popper reflects on her roots as a jazz-trained upright bassist, her complex relationship with gear (including a beloved 1966 P-Bass), and her ongoing ambivalence toward touring. “I just never had the bug to do my own songs before,” she says—but Maybe It’s All Right changed that.