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I heard the song last night on RadioIO acoustic. It's only the third time I hear it and it came as a surprise. I'm sure this cover will have a life of it's own. Listening to it you almost forget that it is a LC song.

Simon, as I am not at all familiar with the multitude of covers I was wondering if I was not exagerating with this one, but I also feel this way about DMttEoL by MP.

It has a strong atmosphere of his own.

That is able to catch me in its orbit, which is very difficult (impossible) to do in general, when others are covering the ultra-attractive Cohen with his strong and deep charisma, what ever they are doing (if I'm ravish or not by the performance), the smell of Cohen is filling it completely. Not this time.

Maybe it owes it to the similitude of the voice of Billie Holiday? It can not be. If she would have been just one hard clone, the magic would not be there, I am almost sure.

I love the whole album. I only got around to buying it a couple of weeks ago ( thanks to this site ) and have played it a lot. I don't think she is that much like Billie Holiday. I'm a big Billie Holiday fan too and have a lot of rare recordings, which no one will ever match.

Madelene sounds like a singer who I heard a few years ago. I can't remember her name now, but she was in a group called The Flying Neutrinos. I think they only ever released one CD, which was a shame because they were excellent.

Hello Dylan,

I do not like the whole album but I find some pieces really amazing.

MP dedicated "Careless Love" to the Poets... oh! I'll see in the booklet which I did not have in hand right now what is the exact quote and I'll come back with it (later). There is also a quote from Dylan Thomas. Just to say right now that she paid a tribute to poetry with this album, which I did not know when I did buy it. I was attracted by her cover of Dance me to the End of Love, and I liked most of the other songs so I did buy the album.

There is also a nice cover of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" which I like but not as much as this marvelous song :

Between the Bars

I made a reseach about the author of the lyrics which I did not knew from Eve nor from Adam, and I had a surprise. He was compared to the Beatles, what was quiete right with me after having heard a sample of the original Between the Bars sang by him. Nevertheless, this is not my point. My point is that Madeleine Peyroux covers the song magnificently!

She turns a very tight song very right very beautifully write text a sensitive metaphor about an addiction to alcool into a song signs by such tender and powerful lover that your feel how he feels and why he can not resist to see the bottom of the bottle again and again.

She is good.

And another of my favourite is "Weary Blues" (Hank Williams).

Regarding the comparison with BH, I find BH much, how can I say, this, vibrating on another energy completely, so I can understand your comment. By chance I heard her sang at the radio last week (she is Great) and this was the only difference (but all the difference in the world) I can see. Otherwise, they look alike pretty much to me, these two voices.

Here, now, I have the booklet right in front of me.

First I realize that I never mentionned the name of this Elliot Smith. This is repaired.

Now I feel the surge to bring the lyrics here :

Between the Bars

drink up, baby, stay up all night
the things you could do, you won't but you might
the potential you'll be that you'll never see
the promises you'll only make
drink up with me now and forget all about the pressure of days
do what i say and i'll make you okay and drive them away
the images stuck in your head
people you've been before that you don't want around anymore
that push and shove and won't bend to your will
i'll keep them still
drink up, baby, look at the stars, i'll kiss you again
between the bars where i'm seeing you
there with your hands in the air waiting to finally be caught
drink up one more time and i'll make you mine
keep you apart deep in my heart separate from the rest
where i like you the best
and keep the things you forgot
the people you've been before that you don't want around anymore
that push and shove and won't bend to your will
i'll keep them still

But you have to listen to this poetry as the double companion poem she made of this song, the two walking side by side. Pure pleasure.

She certainly knew what she was doing.

She certainly did her homework before going into this CD.

Like for Dancing to the End of Love.

You know : "Happy at last". This is it, exactly.

OK now, the quotes :

".. But for the lovers, their arms round the griefs of the ages..."
- Dylan Thomas


Dedicated to Poets, writers of these songs,
memorable people of memorable times such as these, wherever you are...

- Madeleine Peyroux


I join my voice, in silence, though.

The song swings smoothly and regularly then goes this jazzy piano solo like a little excited brat that runs all over the place.

Hey Tchoc...I decided to take a chance on your judgment (on this thread and elsewhere) and got this album yesterday and it's awesome. Thanks. I think my favorite song so far is the Hank Williams one but I've had it only for a day.
And since you liked Madeline Peyroux you might want to take a chance on my judgment and check out Luciana Souza's CD 'Neruda'. Smooth songs and little excited brats all over the place. Different from MP but the styles are certainly comparable.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 79-1296053

Hello Kush,

Weary Blues is also one of my favourite. She is another one who does not do unanimity among critics with this CD. But this is a CD you have to sit and listen to it very carefully, you have to be attentive about the choice of the songs and the poets from which she has borrowed them, and to be attentive of the way she is doing them, the feelings she put in it. Then it becomes a very really interesting piece of art.

I must trust you with Luciana Souza's Neruda. I'm wild about banjo and think politic is a necessary pain to endure.

The identical twin of a voice she has with Billie Holiday is a gift. But she has also capitalized on it by very closely modeling her singing and phrasing on BH. I wonder though if this may come in the way of her eventually finding her own voice and style.

The signature is a reminder to myself more than anything else. This is a brave new world where anybody sitting on a comfortable armchair and within arms reach of a keyboard all of a sudden becomes an expert on world affairs .

Ah! But mankind gives itself a pretty constitution now we have to make it up to date all the time to keep the democraty on the road, this creature of us (what a golem sometimes).

It is more the blind fight for the power and its consequences : hatred and cruelty, violence of all sorts, that I recent as a pain. Not arguments, discussions, of people with different opinions, even if it could go really fierce at some times. After all none of us get the truth, so I find it necessary to mixed different point of views, sometimes, really contradictory to arrive at harmony. To reach Harmony. Not to quarrel to the ends of time. But soon the harmony get unbalanced and oops, here goes a discussion again. Oh! Storms could be as beautiful as blue skies and, above all, needed equally. The art of the communication is difficult. When it is useless to act or speak certainly, the banjo is the best issue.

Still, on another matter, banjo is a pure joy.

Regarding the voice of Ms. Peyroux, I am under the impression that she did not doing it in purpose. When you meet the double of someone you know this is not in purpose the double is looking like the other person. She is not taking the manners of BH, as Dylan stressed it before. She has not her energy, she is not singing like her.

Tc

Michael Parkinson played a song from the album on his radio show on Sunday morning.

I was cooking Sunday dinner for my residents at work ( I work in a care home) and I heard her voice waving across the dining room. That cheered me up completley.

This I can understand easily, Dylan!

I know. It was such a surprise though. Most times I have mentioned her, people say "Who?".

Recently, when Parky has discovered a singer, they have gone on to great things.

I recently received "Careless Love" as a gift from my daughter, Kate. I really am enjoying it. I think it is one of the best cover version's of "Dance Me" and I love the other material, too.

Tchoco, Kush and Dylan, I'll be following some of your other recommendations in the future.

Joe

It's a great album isn't it? I'm glad you're enjoying it Joe.

A nice article on Madeline P. on CNN.com.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Mus ... index.html