Les Sampou
Nov. 16, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Les Sampou (pronounced “Less Sampoo”) is an Americana singer-songwriter, who got her start in the Boston folk scene and moved on to national prominence and acclaim. Sampou has performed at Montreal Jazz Festival, SXSW, Toronto Blues Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival (where she won the New Folk Songwriting Award), Philadelphia Folk Festival, Winnipeg, and Falcon Ridge to name a few. Sampou has conducted workshops at Berklee School of Music and appeared on top syndicated radio programs such as Acoustic Cafe, World Cafe, and NPR. Sampou has released seven albums, five on her own label and two on Rounder Records. Her album, “Fall from Grace”, topped the Gavin Americana Charts nationwide. Her release “Lonesomeville” charted number 2 on the US/European Americana F.A.R. Charts and led to her performance at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX. To date, Sampou has released seven albums of original material (See Sales on Menu). In 2021, Les won the 26th Annual International Songwriters Award for lyric writing for her song “LIES FROM TRUTH.”
Sampou, who lives on the South Shore of Boston, began playing in the streets in what she terms as “relatively late in life.” At twenty five, when all her friends were getting married, buying houses and planning for kids, Sampou started playing guitar and writing, hitting the pavement to Harvard Square, the tunnels of the MBTA subway, and anywhere she could open her case for coin and applause. It was there she found her voice and polished her guitar playing and wrote the first of her prolific collection of songs, many of which you will find on this site organized by genre.
After cutting her teeth in the streets, Les began playing area clubs, doing the 9 pm – 1 am shifts for little or no cash that she sums up as “paying her dues.” After a couple years of the club scene, Sampou found the coffeehouse scene. She describes this period by saying, “Being in front of a listening audience was nerve wracking; my hands would shake and my voice would seize up. But I was hooked.” Les worked her stage fright and didn’t stop writing. Her first album “SWEET PERFUME” caught the attention of legendary DJ Dick Pleasants and it soon was on the doorstep of Rounder Records where she was immediately signed. Rounder released “Fall From Grace” and it hit the top of the charts of Gavin Americana Radio.
Sampou’s third disc, the eponymously-titled album “LES SAMPOU,” was a departure from her folk and blues sound and her penchant for rock began to color her voice and her writing. The CD was well received in the music industry despite Rounder’s reluctance to support the album as it veered too much from Sampou’s earlier album. John Black, writing in Digital City said about the disc, “Les Sampou’ is a remarkable CD full of the kind of songs you play over and over again. Listening to songs like ‘I Want You’ — and believe me I’ve listened to it enough to wear a groove in my CD — you can only wonder why Sampou isn’t in regular rotation on radio stations across the country. Sampou’s mature voice and intelligent heartfelt lyrics make the current flavors of the month on the radio sound like the lightweights they are.”
Sampou and Rounder parted ways and Les released her first all-acoustic, country-blues album, ‘BORROWED & BLUE’” on her own label, MoNando Music. Always side-stepping categorization, this time Sampou put out a collection of the guitar-based country-blues—original and classics—tunes that were a staple in Les’s live shows. Jay Miller, Music Critic for The Patriot Ledger reviewed the album, writing, “Sampou’s guitar work is breathtaking–her six-string mentor Paul Rishell must be proud. Most notably her vocal work is thrilling, adding layers of emotional depth to this eclectic mix of four Sampou originals, old classics by the likes of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Blind Willie McTell and some surprises, like Bob Dylan’s Meet Me in the Morning. An understated triumph.”
But, it wasn’t until her album ‘LONESOMEVILLE,’ that Sampou feels like she “hit her stride.” Pairing up with recording engineer Chris Rival, Sampou and her all-star band of Boston’s cream of the crop session players (Kevin Barry/Guitars, Mike Dinallo/Guitars, Paul Kochanski/Bass, Andy Plaisted/drums, Jim Gambino/Keys, Jimmy Ryan/Mandolin, David Ogden and Mark Cunningham, Vocals) recorded Lonesomeville live in two days. Ducky Carlisle, mix engineer, added his acclaimed rock edge to the Americana set of blues and soul-tinged country tunes. Lyrically, Lonesomeville sums up what Sampou writes about best—love gone wrong, hard goodbyes, and honky tonk heartbreak.
“Sampou never wavers from a steady tone of genuineness…sharply observant songs.” DOWNBEAT
“Powerfully expressive, her new album, “Lonesomeville,” is a personal Top Ten favorite of the year.” STEVE MORSE, BOSTON GLOBE/ ROLLING STONE
“’Lonesomeville’ evokes a Tom Waits-like world.” SING OUT
After the success of Lonesomeville, Sampou was left with a storehouse full of songs that were never produced but frequently requested on stage, and decided to create a live recording in an old church-turned-theatre (Odd Fellows Hall, Weymouth, MA) where she recorded the album in three days “live to two track.” Sampou did not release “LIVE AT CHURCH” to the radio and press world, but made hard copies for stage sale only (Live At Church is available on SALES page) dedicating the album to the singer-songwriter coffeehouse scene for its support of acoustic musicians. The national coffeehouse scene for decades has presented acoustic concerts in the halls of churches run by volunteers. “I dedicate this album to every promoter and volunteer, and to the audiences who find their way to “the church of music. Ours is a lucky community and I’m blessed to have been taken into its fold all these years.” says Sampou.
Sampou’s seventh and most recent project “LIKE YOUR VIBE” is the result of the last few years of collaborations with select musicians worldwide. In order to build her catalog of TV/FILM-ready songs, Sampou and her collaborators created cross genre songs from “1969” co-written with Andre Lund from Norway, an indie rock song about the 1960’s counter culture, to the dark, vampire-themed song “Dreadful Love” co-written with Israeli Roy Osherove to “Boy Blue” a country rock ballad co-written with Axel Bauer from Austria. After accumulating twenty plus collaborations, Sampou and her partner Ed Grenga placed many of the songs on TV and Film.
