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A Southern girl who came of age in Paris, the 22 year old captured everyone who heard her knowing Billie Holiday voice, a bewitching fusion of the soulful South and smoky Parisian cabarets. On her third record, Half the Perfect World, Peyroux covers the great songwriters of late 20th Century North America and France. Haunting works by Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg complement her own songs, such as the poignant "California Rain" and "I'm All Right". From Cohen's erotic "Blue Alert" to the stirring "(Looking for) the Heart of Saturday Night" by Tom Waits, Peyroux also sings an updated version of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile". K.D. Lang joins her on the mistletoe-infused "River" On each album Peyroux has paid handsome homage to Paris. First it was "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf, and on Careless Love she covered Josephine Baker's "J'ai Deux Amours" a classic torch song to her two loves. Here Peyroux possesses the spirit of the great Serge Gainsbourg with "La Javanaise". Socialist president Francois Mitterand referred to as Gainsbourg as "our Baudelaire, our Appollinaire" and Gainsbourg was said to have "elevated the song to the level of art." Peyroux has elevated the songs of these modern poets to works of art and included a few of her own.
 
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