Les Sampou, still establishing herself on the global folk and blues festival scene, crafts material that conveys the depth of long experience. Unlike numerous peers in those genres who labor for years in relative anonymity, she secured a recording contract with comparative speed.
Based in Boston, Sampou issued her own album, Sweet Perfume, in 1994 and then signed with Flying Fish/Rounder Records the following year. Having already performed at coffeehouses and folk festivals throughout the Northeast, she achieved wider national and international recognition only after the appearance of her first label release, Fall from Grace. Although frequently identified as a contemporary blues performer and fully capable in that style, she also reveals a singer/songwriter dimension on the debut through tracks such as “The Things I Should’ve Said” and “Home Again,” while “Weather Vane” and “Fall from Grace” highlight her stronger blues orientation.
Sampou did not develop a serious interest in music until her early twenties, prompted by a performance by Ellen McIlwaine at a Cambridge, MA coffeehouse. Soon afterward she began studying acoustic blues under the Boston-based master Paul Rishell. Steady bookings in the demanding local club circuit during the late 1980s and early 1990s led her to abandon her part-time editing position and devote herself fully to music, an effort that first produced the self-released Sweet Perfume. Its successor, Fall from Grace (1996), surpasses that effort and demonstrates equal command of traditional blues, original blues compositions, and original ballads, with contributions from harmonica player and songwriter Jerry Portnoy. A self-titled album appeared in 1999.
