Madeleine Peyroux returns to The Shedd as she puts the finishing touches on an album of all new compositions. “I have been building on the relationships I developed in co-writing, and something new has taken hold of me,” Peyroux says. “This project is meant to be a wider dreamscape than previous recordings. I’m interested in exploring tougher sounds... trying to find something more raw than the voice that I have now, and in the accompaniment that I have become used to.”
A strong point for Peyroux last year was performing “The Kind You Can’t Afford” a new song, written with former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, for the children of a displaced persons’ camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The song, Peyroux says, is a testament to owning what money can’t buy. About the visit, she recounts, “I’ve had a sincere desire to be in Haiti ever since I started reading Edwidge Danticat, but never did visit before the storm. It was a life-changing experience which I’ll always remember, and the songs I performed there will now always have that flavor of pure music and joy in my memory.” The album is due to be released in 2011. “I think my fans are eager to hear something different,” Peyroux says, and pauses with restraint before adding, “Music has grown into another place in my mind… I am the same singer that I was as a teen, that wants to grow into music, wherever it comes from. I don’t believe I’ve given up anything. I’ve added to myself.”