But the comparison to Holiday (which seems to turn up in every review) should end there, for there is a distinctly different emotional well tapped by this young American with the Parisian soul. Holiday’s painful tension is absent, and instead Peyroux shapes her notes and phrases with a more romantic, wistful air, less seductive but more charming. That she is less a jazz singer than a troubadour with endless tales to tell makes little difference to those listening. Good music is just that. And her impossible-to-pigeon-hole style seems to work in everyone’s favor, not the least of which are the folks at Rounder Records, riding high on the early blockbuster sales of Peyroux’s new release, Careless Love, or the Dakota owners who enjoyed four sold-out performances over the two-night gig.

Such immediate success drove Peyroux under the radar screen eight years ago, after the release of her debut album, Dreamland. Let’s hope this 30-year-old songstress is more ready for the pressure of stardom, which again could challenge her development as an artist. Yes, she has an engaging, almost self-concious style of interacting with her audience; she has a very pleasing alto; her material is sublime; and she is one heckuva songwriter. Her appeal is very broad, given the eclecticism of her approach to an equally eclectic songbook, but eclecticism can mask the definitive individuality that marks a Billie Holiday or even a Diana Krall or Norah Jones. There’s a searching quality to Peyroux’s vocals—and at thirty, she is certainly entitled to some indecision about her destination.

On the other hand, there is no denying the depth of talent. Born in Athens, Georgia, Madeleine Peyroux grew up in southern California and Brooklyn, eventually moving to Paris in1987 with her French mother after her parents’ divorce. At 15 she took to the streets, “busking” with other young musicians. "I started out just wanting to get out of the house," says Peyroux. "So I took my guitar and learned some music." She joined The Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band at 16, and soon was touring Europe, playing wash tub bass and singing a repertoire of 1930s numbers by Fats Walter, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. Holiday was one of her earliest inspirations: "I was listening to Billie Holiday when I was learning to sing. It was the music we had around the house when I was growing up: Fats Waller, Robert Johnson, New Orleans music," Peyroux said in an interview for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "When I heard that pain in Billie Holiday's voice, it meant that somebody's personal life could actually be interesting and be expressed. I felt very close to her because of her artistic approach."

Her 1996 Atlantic release, Dreamland, topped the charts but early success and its accompanying expectations drove Peyroux at 22 into a self-imposed, eight-year escape from the limelight, although she continued singing and songwriting. "After Dreamland, the reality of being a professional singer hit. My voice was exhausted. I needed to learn how to be on the road for 14 months," said Peyroux, who worked with voice specialists in Nashville and New York before returning to a more high-profile routine.

The performances at the Dakota showcased Peyroux’s new release on Rounder Records, Careless Love. And like the new recording, her sets were a blend of acoustic blues, country ballads, torch songs, folk-rock, and pop, featuring a diverse song list covering W. C. Handy, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, and Edith Piaf. Despite the diversity of sources, the tunes in Thursday’s opening set, like the recording, shared a fundamental homogeneity in tempo, phrasing, and emotional palette. Although I would have preferred more unpredictability, more dynamic and rhythmic variety, the set was nevertheless engaging. From her 30s flavored original (“Don’t Wait Too Long”) to Dylan (“You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”), from Hank Williams (“Weary Blues”) to echoes of  Patsy Cline (on W.C. Handy’s title track,“Careless Love”), Josephine Baker (“J’ai Deux Amours”) and Edith Piaf  (“La Vie en Rose”), her shifts were subtle, the mood relaxed and wistful. Hers is not a big voice but she owns each note, occasionally adding just enough hesitation in her phrasing to give the song some “oomph.” This is a singer who makes superb use of space, particularly evident this night on “I’ll Look Around” and “This Is Heaven to Me.” “Like Holiday,” wrote Time magazine, “Peyroux has a bittersweet, broken-hearted alto; she lingers and slides off notes, finding emotion in the slow, sad fade rather than the obvious vocal burst.”

Drawing primarily from Careless Love and Dreamland, Peyroux covered fifteen songs in a 70-minute set. That pace did not really give the musicians a chance to stretch out, and particularly there was not much opportunity to enjoy the talented keyboardist Sam Yahel, who split time between piano and organ. He had a chance to show his lyrical side on the set-closing “This Is Heaven to Me,” but given the range of his organ chops (displayed locally a few years ago with Joshua Redman), his role was generally restrained, appropriately so in this context.  In fact the organ at times seemed to be an odd choice to support the generally soft and flowing Peyroux, adding a slickly pop overtone to “Getting Some Fun Out of Life,” which would have benefited more from Yahel’s piano.

The other partner on stage was bassist Gary Wang, who for much of the evening kept the tempo under control with his firm, steady walking line. Showing his skills with a couple late solos (on “Reckless Blues” and “Spreadin’ Rhythm Around”), his comping might have provided some inspiring tension had Wang detoured more often.

In the newly released December issue of Down Beat, Dan Ouellette discusses the broadly appealing “accessible intimacy”of today’s crop of young female singer-songwriters—including Madeleine Peyroux, for whom “a key ingredient…is composition—soulful expression steeped in the now.” He also notes that this music tends to be “accessible rather than challenging,” and this seems to aptly describe Peyroux at this point in her resurging career, although rather than “now” her music seems more steeped in the traditions of past generations of cabaret and folk rock. (“She's the coolest anachronism you'll meet this year,” says Bill DeMain of Pure Music.) These are not shortcomings, but rather offer a welcome harbor in the swirl of fast-paced, often cacophonous and abstract compositions and performances in contemporary music—and daily life.

Wrote Eliot Wilder (Boston Phoenix), Peyroux has “her own instinctive feeling for pacing and texture that elevates her above mere mimicry, and Careless Love resonates with deeply felt torch balladry and bluesy laments that never fail to hit their mark — the heart.”

 Madeleine Peyroux’s upcoming tour dates include:

• November 8, Ann Arbor, MI  at The Ark, (734) 761-1451
• November 11, Montreal at Cabaret La Tulipe, (514) 529-5000
• November 20, Philadelphia at Tin Angel, www.tinangel.com
• November 21, Alexandria, VA at  Birchmere, www.birchmere.com
• December 2, New York City at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater (ASCAP Foundation Awards), (212) 875-5600