Madeleine Peyroux’s ‘Blue Room’

Peyroux’s upcoming album, The Blue Room, features the artist offering her interpretations of several songs that Ray Charles recorded for his 1962 release Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music.  On that album, he covered several songs from genres outside his R&B comfort zone, offering soulful renditions of country, folk and pop classics such as Eddy Arnold’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” and Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” which turned into a monster hit for Charles.

But Peyroux and her longtime collaborator, producer Larry Klein, didn’t want to reproduce Charles’ singing style nor did they want to replicate the arrangements and instrumentations on his album.  Instead, Blue Room features Peyroux doing what she does best – exploring, discovering and reinterpreting music.

The Blue Room will be released March 5 and will be available at Starbucks everywhere.  But you don’t have to wait until next week to listen to it.  Not with The Wall Street Journal streaming it via the newspaper’s Speakeasy blog.  Just click here.

After playing March 20 in Tarrytown, N.Y., Peyroux officially launches her world tour with two nights at New York’s Lincoln Center March 22-23.  Along with shows in the U.S. and Canada, Peyroux has booked dates in Spain, France and England.

Here’s the schedule:

March 22 – New York, N.Y., Allen Room @ Jazz At Lincoln Center
March 23 – New York, N.Y., Allen Room @ Jazz At Lincoln Center
March 24 – Alexandria, Va., Birchmere
April 2 – Minneapolis, Minn., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant
April 3 – Minneapolis, Minn., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant
April 4 – Milwaukee, Wis., Northern Lights Theater / Potawatomi Bingo Casino
April 5 – Chicago, Ill., Old Town School Of Folk Music
April 25 – Barcelona, Spain, Palau de la Musica Catalana
April 26 – La Coruna, Spain, Teatro Rosaliaa de Castro
April 29 – London, England, Ronnie Scott’s
April 30 – London, England, Ronnie Scott’s
May 1 – London, England, Ronnie Scott’s
May 4 – Coutances, France, Jazz Sous Les Pommiers
May 6 – Paris, France, Olympia
May 31 – Toronto, Ontario, Enwave Theatre
June 1 – Toronto, Ontario, Enwave Theatre

Some shows are already on sale.  Visit MadeleinePeyroux.com for more information.