Troubling developments

I have been a die-hard Madeleine Peyroux fan since her early days with Lilith fair. I have all three of her recordings; Dreamland, Careless Love and (two versions of) Got You On my Mind and they are among my favorite CD's. Madeleine is an exceptional artist and I have long admired her personal story.

I saw Madeleine play at the Turning Point about two years ago and it was an thoroughly delightful show. Full of joy and fabulous music. (William Galison was playing guitar and harmonica and saxophone and sort of MCing.) I bought the original seven song Got You On My Mind there. I am looking forward to seeing Madeleine at the Rochester show this week.

However: I have been following the progress of this controversy about Got You On My Mind with increasing interest and concern. I have carefully read the articles in the Jazz Police and the Valley Advocate as well as recent postings on this site and I must say that I agree with Judith. There is something deeply troubling going on.

As a woman who has had personal experience with abuse as a victim and a part-time counselor, I am troubled by the claims of abuse made by Madeleine's lawyer against Galison. (I imagine he could have not made these claims without Madeleine's consent.)

My only knowledge of the nature of the claims come from the Valley Advocate article and Galison's recent posting, but if Galison is misrepresenting the facts in the press, I can only assume that Madeleine's lawyer(s) would have corrected the record by now. If what Galison says is true, and the grounds of the allegations are angry words or non-endangering actions in the course of a heated argument, then characterizing them as "physical abuse" trivializes the term and compromises the credibility of the countless battered women who report brutal and potentially fatal incidents of actual physical abuse.

Calling cases of nonviolent disputes "physical abuse" is like calling catcalling "rape" or calling a gentle spanking "child abuse". If the definition of the term "physical abuse" is diluted to include threatening to break one's own guitar, the public will understandably care less about its prevalence and do less about its prevention.

Frivolous accusations of abuse not only damage the credibility of true victims and prejudice the judgement of judges and juries- they also tie up the overburdened court system and deny women who are genuinely in danger the chance for redress and safety. Not to mention the damage false accusations can do the accused.

Madeleine should know that the proper response to serious physical abuse is to contact the authorities immediately and have the abuser restrained/ and or punished. Apparently neither Madeleine nor her lawyer or manager saw fit to take either of these actions when the alleged abuse occurred. If, as it appears, these allegations of abuse were contrived or exaggerated primarily to gain advantage in a commercial dispute, this action is deeply cynical, dangerous and abjectly anti-feminist.

I assume it was Madeleine's lawyer who described Galison's behavior as "physical abuse" because it a lawyer's job to know the definition of these terms. If it was him that accused Galison of physical abuse based on non-physically abusive actions reported by Madeleine, then he should be disciplined. If Madeleine was a party to such a scheme, she should distance herself from his accusations at once. If she has ever had experience with serious domestic violence she will understand why.

If I am mistaken about Madeleine's experience, then I apologize in advance, but my every instinct(and those of my colleagues) tells me that this is not a legitimate claim of serious abuse, but somehow relates to the dispute over the CD with Mr. Galison. So many aspects of this situation make no sense whatsoever, and neither Rounder Records nor Ms. Peyroux have done anything to allay the confusion. Fo