Les Sampou

Les Sampou

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
What the mass consciousness wants, it gets. Right now it seems to want female singer-songwriters--women expressing themselves in a way that's honest, direct, vulnerable and emotionally loud. Writers like Ani, Alanis, Sarah and many other women, discovered and undiscovered, are delivering. Les Sampou delivers too -- a collection of hook-laden songs about disillusionment, revenge, petty wars, and admitted failure...all heavy stuff, but when you sit back and listen, you dance to the loss.

"I was knocked out by the CD ("Les Sampou"). Every so often an album comes along in a particular genre that ups the ante for everyone else. This is a powerful artistic statement with commercial potential.... These days it's rare to find an album that holds my attention from beginning to end. On the CD player it's easy to skip the bits that don't excite. (Les') album is a complete work that sustains throughout. It is a powerful achievement... and it stands out among the best things I've heard in a long while." Sean Timmons, Promoter, Appel Farm Music Festival

Les turns it up a notch on her new self-titled release. On Flying Fish/Rounder Records, "Les Sampou" is a departure from her folk/blues roots moving more mainstream, alternating folk rock and modern rock arrangements---a from-the-hip delivery start to finish, and, par for the Les Sampou course, there are no fillers here.

What does remain the same between albums is her talent as a songwriter no matter the genre. "In writing this album of songs, it's obvious I spent most of my time at the deep end of the emotional pool," Sampou says, "but, mining my dark side provided the richest inspiration this time around. To me, it's an album about love and anti-love. Some emotions aren't that fun to sit with during the time it takes to write the song; in fact, I know I'm on to something if I'm crying and writing at the same time," she laughs, "but art is often fresh insight that the pain of living provides so generously, so you gotta get it while it's hot."

While "Les Sampou" has its light-hearted diversions heard in "Sitting on Jupiter," and "Afraid of the D ark," respectively an alternative rockabilly hybrid about the fragility of the ozone, and a Little Feat esque song about the trepidation of falling in love, the album's thematic core arrives with the very first cut, "Broken Pieces," where Sampou confesses "All my lovers have been lost, bad boys, I guess the b roken pieces catch my eye...like shiny glass, they mirror back some part of me I try to hide."

What Sampou can't hide is her talent: Les is a triple threat--a unique and accomplished guitarist, a chanteuse with a voice "capable of ripping off rafter-raising blues tunes and then turning even grand concert halls into house concerts with her intimate balladry" (Boston Globe 2/99), and a songcrafter of the highest quality who whittles and smoothes every line by hand. "Layered meanings, inner rhyme, symbolism are just some of the games I play when I write. But the goal is to create a universal point to each song. What's challenging is finding and revealing what's truth. With this group of songs, I laid bare my own bones of how I love and don't love, forgive and don't forgive," Sampou says.

"It was really important to me to disguise the intensity of the lyric behind what Adam calls the "booty factor," Sampou explains when referring to her co-producer Adam Steinberg (younger brother of Sebastian Steinberg/Soul Coughing) a Boston producer/musician who recently toured Lilith Fair with Patty Griffin. "The booty factor means, in order for a track to stay on the record and not end up on the floor, it's got to make you move right down to your gut...that's where the music gets you...that's where our deepest emotions and desires lay."

To insure "booty factor" throughout, Sampou and Steinberg hired a top notch crew including bassist Lou Ulrich of the popular Boston band "Groovasaurus" and John Sands, another Beantown session player who toured with Amy Mann of Til Tuesday; Tom West on piano and Hammond organ from the Duke Levine band; Mariah Carey's keyboardist Andrew Sherman, to name a few. "It was easily the best musical experience of my life," Sampou says about the time she spent in the studio. "It was my first real experience as a producer and all that mattered in my life for those nine months was every sound that went down."

Sampou grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, one of five children with no musical heritage other th an her parent's collection of Burl Ives, Peter Paul & Mary, and Joan Baez records, but she began singin g as soon as she could talk, memorizing old folk songs for long family car rides. Writing began in the form of journals, poetry, plays and prose at the age of 12, but it wasn't until she was in her mid-twenties that her musical muse finally, as she describes it, woke up. "Every weekend in high school I went to at least one rock concert at the Boston Garden or the Orpheum. But while I dreamed of being up there on stage, I never seriously thought I could do it. It took a lot of searching, a lot of other jobs, and perhaps a bit of fate to commit to music full time. But once I started, I never looked back."

Tracks:

Holy Land
Alibis
The Things I Should've Said
Home Again
Ride the Line
Flesh and Blood
Weather Vane
I Already Know
Strings of Pearls
Fall From Grace
Bull's-eye
Two Strong Arms

Customer Reviews:

Les's New CD~Borrowed and Blue.......2001-08-22

Completing the adage, Les Sampou's just released CD, "Borrowed and Blue"is comprised of "Old and New" songs. Some of the songs are ones Les borrowed from blues masters while the rest are self penned. Her newest song starts this collection. Lorraine is a song that Les wrote in the pouring rain and about a child who was born in, and seemed to bring with her the rain. Les intricately and perfectly entwines her vocals with crystalline, syncopated guitar picking, slides and seamless transitions. Like the rain, you can't help but get caught in this new, clever song that Les wrote and performs.

"Borrowed and Blue" is exceptionally well crafted. Les's performances flow so naturally. She firmly yet softly captivates with the pure, simple elegance of her "plug and play" performances. When you listen to Les on this CD, you feel like you are sitting with her (where she made the CD) in a quiet living room. It is an intimate recording in which Les effortlessly delivers a seemingly private performance that you know comes straight from her heart.

This CD showcases Les's god-given talent for expressing deep and broad ranges of emotion in music and poetry, be it her own or of other great masters. It centers on the solo feel of just Les and her guitar and gives her performances an entirely noiseless backdrop. The result is a listening experience so personal that you may be prompted as I was to put on headphones. You can't help, but feel that you want an equally noiseless backdrop within which to hear Les's sublime gifts as a guitarist, vocalist and clever, rich, and profound lyricist.

You can almost feel and visualize her fingers picking and traveling effortlessly and seamlessly up and down the chords and chord changes. Her perfect guitar playing from picking to sliding to strumming, was splendid with its upright, melodic inflections and tones. Her accompanying vocals are of a sophisticated, albeit white palette, but she "must have paid her dues" `cause Les performs her own amazing slice of soulful blues here. On "Borrowed and Blue" Les Sampou delivers a "bassy", heart-felt, emotive, and often "tuneful", tapping collection of blues songs. This is a "must have" CD for anyone who has ever sung or even had the slightest inclination towards the blues. Once in a "blue" moon, music comes together so beautifully and feels so right that it makes me howl out loud. Les hit those same chords in me with B&B, but so soulfully, like a "howling moon" that moves you deep inside.

Check Out Les's latest CD, Borrowed and Blue; Also Great!!!!.......2001-08-21

"Borrowed and Blue" is an exceptionally well made, high quality production. Les's performances just flow so naturally. She intricately entwines her vocals with crystal clear guitar picking and seamless transitions and guitar slides. She firmly yet softly captivates with the pure, simple elegance of her "plug and play" clarity and perfection. When you listen to Les on this CD, you feel like you are sitting with her (where she made the CD) in a quiet living room. The mood is peaceful as Les effortlessly delivers a seemingly private performance that you know comes straight from her heart.

This CD offered the perfect showcase for Les's god-given talent for expressing deep and broad ranges of emotion in music and poetry, be it her own or of other great masters. It centers on the solo feel of just Les and her guitar and gives her performances an entirely noiseless backdrop. The result is a listening experience so personal that you may be prompted as I was to put on headphones. You can't help, but feel that you want an equally noiseless backdrop within which to hear Les's sublime gifts as a guitarist, vocalist and clever, rich, and profound lyricist.

Les's transcendent vocals are perfectly blended with her syncopated guitar style. You can almost feel and visualize her fingers picking and travelling effortlessly and seamlessly up and down the chords and chord changes. Her perfect guitar playing from picking to sliding to strumming, was splendid with its upright, melodic inflections and tones. Her accompanying vocals are of a sophisticated, albeit white palette, but she "must have paid her dues" `cause Les performs her own amazing slice of soulful blues here. On "Borrowed and Blue" Les Sampou delivers a "bassy", heartfelt, emotive, and often "tuneful", tapping collection of blues songs. This is a "must have" CD for anyone who has ever sung or even had the slightest inclination towards the blues. Once in a "blue" moon, music comes together so beautifully and feels so right that it makes me howl out loud. Les hit those same chords in me with B&B, but so soulfully, like a "howling moon" that moves you deep inside.

She's awesome.......1999-03-31

I really can't add much to the excellent reviews posted above. This is truly an exceptional disc.

This lady can play..........1998-10-03

Great lyrics and the lady can play that guitar...when she tells a story, you can feel it...and if you get the chance to see her in concert like I did, check her out...I repeat...the lady CAN PLAY!!!

A must-have even for NON-blues lovers!.......1998-09-07

Les Sampou is a wisp of a woman with a powerhouse voice. She also plays a fine, intricate guitar, and tells a story that will pick you up bodily and carry you miles away. In FALL FROM GRACE, her second release, each cut shows her finest gifts in the very best lights.

The liner notes begin, "Les Sampou is tough. She's also tender, and smart. And she plays some very tasty guitar. And damn, can she write a song." Elijah Wald's essay suggests the same spare phrasing that hallmark the compositions on this album. From the opening Notes of "Holy Land," a lazy ballad of pretentious white trash, she hooks the listener and starts reeling. The broader strumming accompanying "Alibis" -- "My dad told me that you can't steal second with your foot on first / And I reckon he's right"-- opens out into full instrumentation as the passion builds. "Things I Should Have Said" takes the experience we've all had, of re-thinking a situation we could have handled better, and paints it in the context of a singer's angry musings on a cross-country drive. The soft yearning of a homebound traveller is delicately embellished in "Home Again." And again, you're right there with her, almost unconscious of the deft production so ably supporting the fine story-telling.

Sampou is adept at vivid imagery, despite a bare minimum of flowery phrases. Whether it's the childhood exhilaration of "Ride the Line," or the bitter discovery of her best friend's homosexuality and her own betrayal ("Flesh and Blood"), she makes the experiences our own. The aching exhaustion of "I Already Know" paints a woman persuading her heart to let go when her mind knows she should. "String of Pearls" uses the metaphor of an heirloom necklace for the values we don't always appreciate until we've proven their worth to ourselves. "Two Strong Arms" is a gritty anthem of a woman giving herself a stern talking-to-- this one's a personal favorite. (An excerpt doesn't do it justice, folks: you just have to hear it.)

Tracks:

Broken Pieces
Hanging By A Thread
I Want You
My Van Gogh
Sitting On Jupiter
Happy Anniversary
Afraid Of The Dark
Baby
Same Fine Line
Fly

Customer Reviews:

Personal.......2001-02-22

This is a great album with a strong personal touch. The songs are really emotional - not that sappy, honey-laden fake emotion we hear too often, and not the indiscriminate, inarticulate "everybody sucks, life sucks, I hate everything and aren't I ironic?" kind either. (Two guesses who I'm talking about). This album is real. Sampou sings her stories like they actually mean something, and knows how to make the lyrics tell the story. Even though this isn't my usual musical cup of tea - the blues-rock with folk sensibilities and minor key guitar work doesn't really get me moving in most cases - I love this album. Buy it, and forget about the top-ten "singer songwriter" fakes.

Another great offering.......2001-01-05

Its hard to decide what I like most about this CD - the great lyrics or the great music..... Les Sampou writes lyrics that paint stories with emotion and punch. Theres a great mix of tunes here as well - Sitting on Jupitor (if you've heard her live you may know it as "thin blue line"), Same fine line and Hanging by a thread being favorites of mine.

Tracks:

Lorraine
Kokomo Blues
Big Road Blues
Farewell to You Baby
Meet Me in the Morning
Chinatown
Statesboro Blues
It Won't Be you
Boogaloo Down La Rue
You Are My Sunshine
Richland Woman Blues
Travelling Riverside Blues
Sweet Perfume
Police Dog Blues
Weather Vane
Holyland

Product Description

Female singer-songwriter and steel string/slide guitarist Les Sampou's fourth CD "Borrowed & Blue" is a live sixteen-song collection of country blues, including classics as well as originals.

Customer Reviews:

MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL LIVES!.......2006-07-06

Since my youth I have had an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The origin of that interest first centered on the blues, then early rock and roll and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960's, folk music. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. The subject of the following review is an example.

Yes, indeed Les Sampou can take pride in this album. Mississippi Fred McDowell lives. Her incredibly strong slide guitar playing makes some of Les's old classics like Chinatown and Sweet Perfume just jump out of the album. She also does a nice job on Blind Willie McTell's Statesboro Blues. Just think of this. What if Les had had the opportunity, like Bonnie Raitt, to learn and travel with the old master. Wow. Definitely Les's best album. How about doing McDowell's classic You've Got To Move on the next album?