Henriette & Elie Zmirou were not professional singers -- indeed, Elie Zmirou was in New York working as a translator at the United Nations when the two crossed paths with producer Tony Schwartz. He was working on a project involving the music heard in midtown Manhattan and was impressed enough with Henriette Zmirou's unaffected singing that he recorded them for Folkways, primarily doing songs from her native Normandy unaccompanied. The resulting album, titled French Folk Songs, was subsequently released by Folkways. ~ Bruce Eder