The "breather" was an eight-year hiatus from the limelight, although Peyroux never stopped singing. Now she's returned with a new, highly acclaimed recording, Careless Love (Rounder); she's back on tour, and she's coming to town. In the next two weeks, Peyroux will visit Minneapolis (The Dakota, November 3-4), Chicago (The Hot House, November 6); Ann Arbor (The Ark, November 8), Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theater, November 10), and Montreal (Cabaret la Tulipe, November 11).

A native of Georgia, Madeline Peyroux grew up in Brooklyn before moving to Paris following her parents' divorce (her mother is French). Absorbing French culture from an early age, she took up guitar in Paris, but her first love was singing. She first performed publicly with groups of street musicians in Paris' Latin Quarter, including the Riverboat Shufflers and The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band. After touring Europe with her French cohorts, Peyroux was "discovered" by an Atlantic Records agent while performing in a New York club, which led to the recording of Dreamland. Reportedly concerned about the pressure of coming up with another hit, she returned to street music and club dates, traveling from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans and Western Europe before signing with Rounder Records in 2003.

Her new release, Careless Love, is a blend of acoustic blues, country ballads, torch songs, and pop, featuring a diverse song list covering W. C. Handy, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith, Edith Piaf, and one of her own compositions. "Don't Wait Too Long" was primarily composed by Peyroux and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris, who is best known for his collaborations with Norah Jones on her 2002 hit, Come Away With Me. Having met while Peyroux was touring for Dreamland, the two reconnected and wrote much of the song sitting on a Central Park bench; producer Larry Klein added some final touches. Of the song, Peyroux notes, "Like a conversation in its own context, it is meant to testify to the lost, forgotten, and to the trials of change, and without any sad refrain!"

Regarding the long interval between recordings, Peyroux said, "I think this record was part of my silence. It wasn't in my plan to wait this long, but it sort of followed suit.'' Not oblivious to her new success, Peyroux nevertheless considers "busking" (singing for donations) to be her preferred artistic outlet: "Without being grandiose about it,'' Peyroux says, "busking is part of that experience of being one with the universe.''

On the street corner or in the comfortable surroundings of a club or concert hall, Madeleine Peyroux is once again creating a buzz and garnering new fans. Says Time, "Peyroux has a bittersweet, brokenhearted alto; she lingers and slides off notes, finding emotion in the slow, sad fade rather than the obvious vocal burst."

On her tour of North America's heartland, see Madeline Peyroux at:

The Dakota in Minneapolis, November 3-4 (www.dakotacooks.com); at the Hot House in Chicago, November 6 (www.hothouse.net); at the Ark in Ann Arbor, November 8 (www.theark.org); at the Phoenix Concert Theater in Toronto, November 10 (http://www.clubzone.com/c/Toronto/Nightclub/Phoenix_Concert_Theatre.html), and in Montreal at the Cabaret La Tulipe, November 11 (514-529-5000). For more information about Madeleine Peyroux, see www.madeleinepeyroux.com