Once again she was described as the new Holiday, "a bittersweet, brokenhearted alto".Yet, as Cyrus Chestnut, the acclaimed pianist who played on Dreamland, put it: "[Peyroux] has her own story to tell: with her voice, her heart, her spirit." His implication being that her life is every bit as complex and vibrant as those of the greats who have preceded her.Peyroux, the starlet, had returned, but it quickly became apparent that the ride would be every bit as intriguing second time around. Eventually, an independent label, Rounder Records, came calling and Careless Love, released in the UK by Universal, is the product Once again the critics were raving. She virtually vanished, cutting ties with her record label and heading back on the road. Her travels even took her back busking to the streets of Paris.They were not easy years: a cyst in her throat had to be removed, a couple of attempts at recording again came to little. She travelled across the States, making prolonged stops in Nashville, and hit the clubs as a journeywoman performer. I could've kept running with it, but instead I stepped back and took a breather."That is something of an understatement.
Others wondered how someone so young could perform classic songs by Holiday, Bessie Smith and Patsy Cline so convincingly as to make them sound her own. Time magazine pronounced the groundbreaking Dreamland "the most exciting, involving vocal performance by a new singer this year".It was all heady stuff for the then 22-year-old, as she headlined jazz festivals and opened tours for some of the biggest names in the business "It was great," Peyroux said "I got to perform with fantastic musicians I got to see Nina Simone live. She was encouraged to learn the guitar and the solitary performances she gave as a child have helped develop the intimate style - sometimes described as alluringly fragile - that has become a trademark.This raw, bohemian upbringing, forged in two of the world's most creative cities was used, at least in part, to explain her talent when she first stunned jazz critics in 1996 She was greeted with a torrent of gushing reviews Most raved about her smoke-and-whisky vocals. A New Orleans-born actor (who recently died), he sat her up to watch classic television and, perhaps more importantly, introduced her to the musical stars he adored. It was a great time." But more than being fun, the period allowed her to develop as a musician in a way a more structured youth might not have done."I believe I was given a special chance because of the psychological freedom I had, singing in the street," she said in another interview. "If I'd stayed in school, I wouldn't have been one of those people who are encouraged to shine.
I had all these transitions going on." Much better than school had been.As with so many artists, Peyroux recalls a torrid period in her early life when she felt uncomfortable and excluded from the crowd "I was always a little bit outside the group. It's not that I didn't appreciate Michael Jackson and Madonna I learned all those songs by heart But I knew I was different. I wasn't dressing like the other kids or doing the same things."At home she was talking Greek tragedies, Plato and Socrates with her parents who were both university lecturers." I was overweight and wore second-hand clothes, so to say I was a weirdo was an understatement."But all this time there was a rock in her life, a person who inspired and encouraged her; her father. We would put our instruments in the window and just hang out.
