Peyroux is fine and mellow, if not original

Madeleine Peyroux's promoters suggest that comparing the jazz ingenue to Billie Holiday is perhaps appropriate but also too easy. Yes, they say, the women share the same languorous phrasing and sepia-toned timbre, but Peyroux distinguishes herself with a broader songbook. She doesn't just sing songs that Holiday would have immortalized in her day; Peyroux also sings tear-in-my-beer country ballads, blues, French chansons, and even tunes by contemporary singer-songwriters.

Still, the Holiday connection loomed large in her Monday night set at Sanders Theatre. Even my companion leaned over after Peyroux's first song, a gorgeous cover of Leonard Cohen's ''Dance Me to the End," to say, ''She does Billie Holiday better than Billie Holiday."

Such a sentiment has bolstered, and perhaps haunted, Peyroux since she arrived in 1996 with her acclaimed jazz debut, ''Dreamland." A Georgia native who grew up in Brooklyn and Paris, Peyroux is bound to remind listeners of Holiday, circa ''Lady in Satin," but indeed, that may be too cheap a comparison.

Peyroux and fellow Rounder Records labelmates Cowboy Junkies were in Cambridge to record a segment for etown, a radio program broadcast to more than 150 stations across the country. The show airs locally on WUMB, 91.9 FM (8 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Saturday), and WXRV, 92.5 FM (9 p.m. Sunday). Monday night's segment at Sanders will probably run in about four to six weeks.

For all of the audience's rapturous attention, Peyroux's performance was so derivative at times that it was distracting. Her awkward stage demeanor didn't help her cause: She seemed nervous as she shifted from one foot to the other, and her interview with etown host Nick Forster was even more wooden. He asked -- granted, in a rather meandering way -- about her new album, ''Careless Love," which includes songs by Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, and Cohen. ''Yes, great songwriters," she replied flatly. Dead silence, from the stage and audience.

But if easy conversation didn't come to Peyroux naturally, good music did, especially from her tight band. Her cover of Smith's ''Between the Bars" proved that she can adapt any song to her style. As dusky and decorous as her delivery was, it suggested that Peyroux is an exquisite interpreter of other people's songs, yet not quite an original artist.

By contrast, Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies gave a stark performance, complemented perfectly by her band's subtle flourishes of guitar, accordion, and harmonica. Before gliding through ''Notes Falling Slow," Timmins offered a telling preface of sorts, explaining that the song had become her favorite on this latest tour. It also happens to be one of the new album's saddest songs, she said, serving as ''a bit of evidence that we are depressed." Hearty laughs, from the stage and audience. See? That's how it's done, Miss Peyroux.

Madeleine Peyroux
With Cowboy Junkies
At: Sanders Theatre, Monday night