In a career marked by both great international success and self-imposed retreats, Madeleine Peyroux seems to have now settled into a good place artistically, and she brought it all to a good place to hear her music on Saturday night. For the last date on her current tour, the Georgia-born singer and her musicians were welcomed by a large and appreciative crowd seated around tables at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit.

Peyroux has developed more of a stage presence over the years. She still sings from that melancholy place within herself that originally brought her to attention as a teenager performing on the streets of Paris two decades ago. But she’s now more likely to joke around a little between songs and occasionally dramatize a lyric with a facial expression or change of posture.

Accompanied by Barak Mori on upright bass and Jon Herington on electric guitar, the seated Peyroux began the 90-minute performance with “Take These Chains From My Heart,” a Hank Williams song made doubly famous in a version by Ray Charles. She quickly established her way of personalizing a familiar melody by stretching the lyrics and working around, but never quite on, the beat.

Despite being a bit of a lyrical “bring down,” as the singer noted, “Between the Bars” had the singer’s haunting vocal floating arrestingly above a pulsing rhythm. The nostalgia-filled country blues “Got You On My Mind” also impressed, with Herington on harmony vocals as well as slide guitar in a song about a love that “went away.”

Peyroux joked about her repertoire being all about “love, blues or drinking” and then proceeded to, as she said, incorporate all three elements in a moving version of Randy Newman’s “Guilty.” “Don’t Wait Too Long” was one of several mid-tempo gems that emphasized a conversational lyric matched by interactive instrumental passages. Peyroux’s acoustic guitar provided textural support for some impeccable solo work from each of her rather formally dressed, in suits and ties, trio mates.

The black-clad Peyroux later played a solo medley, accompanying herself with some fine fingerpicking on acoustic guitar. Conjuring classic rural blues sounds, she seemed to be very much within her domain, revealing her studied but also very natural way with the iconic material about trying to survive under heavy burdens.

Mori and Herington helped the singer broaden her base with a selection of pieces that ranged from a Jobim classic, sung in Portuguese, through a tango to a reggae (with a bit of ukulele from the leader). A New Orleans funk piece in honor of the late Allen Toussaint was a crowd favorite with its infectious rhythm.

Saving the best trio efforts for last, Peyroux and company offered her signature take on Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” followed by a playful encore of “Careless Love,” complete with wordless vocalizing from Mori and Herington. A final, sweet goodbye of a tune, Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” led to a standing ovation acknowledged by a long-held bow by the singer.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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