Madeleine Peyroux Information Continued
Madeleine Peyroux was born in Athens, Georgia. Her family was in academia,
and she has described her parents as "hippies". Her father moved the family to Brooklyn
when she was six, so he could pursue a career in acting. Madeleine Peyroux grew up
in New York City and southern California, and when her parents divorced, she moved with
her mother to Paris.
Madeleine Peyroux started singing at the age of fifteen, when she discovered
street musicians in the Latin Quarter in Paris. She joined a group called the Riverboat
Shufflers, first passing round the hat, and then singing. At sixteen she joined the Lost
Wandering Blues and Jazz Band, spending two years touring Europe performing songs by
the likes of Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and others, which provided the basis
for her first album, Dreamland (1996). Madeleine Peyroux spent much of the
next six years busking in Paris, performing occasionally in clubs in the U.S., and generally
living a low-key existence. She continued to contribute to works by other artists, but rarely
appeared in clubs under her own name.
In May 2002, she joined multi-instrumentalist William Galison, and together they
appeared at such venues as the Bottom Line, Joe's Pub, and the Tin Angel. In 2003 the duo
released a seven-song EP entitled Got You on My Mind, which they sold at shows and
online. Got You on My Mind was re-released by William Galison in August 2004; the
original EP was expanded by the addition of four tracks by Gallison. Madeleine
Peyroux released her own sophomore effort, Careless Love, in September 2004.
The album received generally positive reviews. Her new album, Half the Perfect
World, was released in September 2006. She collaborated with several artists, including
Jesse Harris, Walter Becker, Larry Klein (who also produced the album), and k.d. lang, with
whom Madeleine Peyroux duets on a cover of the Joni Mitchell song, "River".
