Peyroux, whose voice is often compared to that of Billie Holiday's, was discovered while in her early twenties, when Beauvais spotted her at a New York club. He recalls the precocious singer's set to be 'some of the most exciting, viscerally moving minutes of my music-listening life.' Beauvais signed Peyroux to Atlantic and co-produced her 1996 debut Dreamland. Peyroux's husky voice enchanted audiences and critics alike, but it was 2004's Careless Love a wide-ranging collection of covers from Elliott Smith to Leonard Cohen-penned tracks that proved to be a milestone release for the artist, fetching mainstream recognition and marking the start of a four-album-long collaboration with producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Herbie Hancock).

The American-born Peyroux, whose career began as a teen busker on the streets of Paris, is a regularly-touring, active artist, who has often returned to her love of busking between albums.