I went to this show not knowing what to expect, other than a mellow evening starring the chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux.

What we got was mellow in one sense – the audience wasn’t dancing in the aisles – but in another sense was quite stirring and emotional.

Madeleine has an extremely extensive songbook.  Shortly after she took the stage, she said that as far as she is concerned, songs fall into one of three categories:  romance, the blues, or drinking. She then launched into a Randy Newman song.

She performed a lovely rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” which is one of my favorite Cohen songs. There was Bob Dylan’s “You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go”. Ray Charles. Warren Zevon. Cole Porter (I believe).

At one point, she said that she loves singing songs written by dirty old men, and then introduced the Cohen song. She said the same thing when introducing the Zevon song, and all I could think was that I wish he had lived long enough to be considered a dirty old man (he was 56 when he died of prostate cancer in 2003).

There was a marvelous orchestra backing Madeleine. Her guitarist, Jon Herington, is excellent. Her keyboard player had a grand piano, electric piano, and Hammond organ and used them all. Her regular band also has a drummer and acoustic bass player, both quite accomplished musicians. Tonight she also had a string quartet which had mostly Boston-based musicians. They rounded out the orchestra.

This was the kind of concert that would be perfect to see with the love of your life. Maybe next time!

Keyboardist, Madeleine and Jon

Keyboardist

I know it looks like the mic is coming out of Madeleine’s eye, but it’s a nice shot otherwise