Madeleine Peyroux and William Galison: Got You On My Mind

Recently in these pages I lamented the overlong gap between singer/guitarist Madeleine Peyroux’s 1996 debut, Dream-land, and her exemplary 2004 follow-up, Careless Love. Perhaps the jazz gods were listening, for Peyroux is already back, this time teamed with an extraordinary hyphenate, singer-songwriter-producer-percussionist-harmonica player William Galison, on the multishaded Got You on My Mind (Waking Up). OK, so Got You on My Mind was recorded a full year before Love, but still: Peyroux and Galison are a match made in musical heaven, particularly when they intertwine voices on the languorously sexy, co-written “Playin'” and a hymnlike “Heaven Help Us All.” Peyroux, heard on five additional tracks, shows off her Billie Holiday-ness to full advantage on “Back in Your Own Back Yard,” digs deep to unveil an inner Patsy Cline on “Got You on My Mind” and glides through “The Way You Look Tonight” with Astaire-like elegance. Galison takes the lead on four Peyroux-less tracks, working some sensational harmonica sorcery on John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and revitalizing the age-old “frog and scorpion” tale on the bluesy “Shoulda Known,” with Carly Simon stepping in to play wonderfully against type as the wily scorpion. Peyroux followers might wonder at the inclusion here of “J’ai Deux Amours” and “This Is Heaven to Me,” both of which also appeared on Careless Love.

Originally Published March 1, 2005