Kate “KT” Tunstall was “an unemployed busker,” 29 years old, when she went in to record her debut studio album, “Eye to the Telescope” in 2004.

The Scottish singer and songwriter had spent her 20s “trying to be a musician,” playing in bands — including a klezmer group called Oi Va Voi — before signing a contract with the U.K.’s independent Relentless Records. It proved worth the wait: “Eye to the Telescope” went Top 5 and five-times platinum in Tunstall’s homeland, where it was also nominated for a prestigious Mercury Prize. In the U.S. it reached the Top 20, buoyed by the use of the album’s third single, “Suddenly I See,” in the opening credits of the 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Tunstall, now 50, used that success to maintain a career largely on her own creative terms. She’s rele

See Full Page