Borrowed & Blue was selected as one of the TOP TEN CDS OF THE YEAR by two leading Massachusetts dailies: The Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger.
BOSTON GLOBE, Scott Alarick
"Borrowed & Blue is the CD Les Sampou's fans always hoped she'd make. Armed only with her guitar, searing mezzo, and a Monday-morning-size case of the blues, she delivers a solo set of folk blues. She takes classics by Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, and Bob Dylan, reinventing and reinvigorating them until they fit her style like a tight pair of jeans; and her own tunes crackle with modern sensibility."
If you like blues sung by a woman and a guitar played by a woman like a man, you've got to get this CD. Les Sampou is self-taught. She says,"I used to woodshed for 5-6 hours a day just to be able to get over my stage fright that would make my hands seize up from nerves." She used to listen to records that ranged from Sarah Vaughn to Patsy Cline to the Talking Heads in order to learn how to sing and play. As a result of this varied repertoire of "teachers," Sampou's music is eclectic and hard to categorize. She is a musical chameleon, singing like the "old timers" when she presents her classic country blues renditions, and then switching her elastic vocals to include dramatic nuances in her rock originals, twang in her country sing a-longs and velvet in her folk ballads. The thread is the conviction she displays in her passionate delivery.
Today, with her fourth album (visit www.LesSampou.com to listen to her other CDs) "Borrowed & Blue," Sampou re-visits her roots. Recorded live in the upstairs bedroom "studio" of songwriter J.P. Jones with a P.A.R.I.S. system, Les accompanys herself on her steel-string and slide guitars. The sound quality is outstanding--the guitar is big and rich and it's as if you're in the room with her. The performances are all top notch. Every nuance of every guitar bend and vocal dynamic is heard. And the repertoire is just great-- upbeat blues, slide guitar, ragtime, ballads. As Blues pundit Elijah Wald said, upon hearing Borrowed & Blue, "If this album doesn't make a lot of people sit up and listen--well, there is no justice in the world."
Les Sampou got her start in Boston's Haymarket subway stop in 1985. Sampou remembers it as the "very first time I played in front of more than one person; I had terrific stage fright but knew this was going to be my path from now on." Over the next five to seven years, Les Sampou experimented with a few short-lived duos and trios, and played solo sets at a circuit of bars, performing cover songs from the seventies and eighties. It wasn't until in 1989, that she began writing and performing all of her own material and within a year Sampou was taking it on the road, across the country, to Canada, and to Europe.
Despite her early yearnings for a rock 'n' roll band, it was Sampou's solo act that she became most comfortable with, and which grew successful enough for her to quit her day job. By her second CD, Fall From Grace, which marked her signing with Rounder Records, Sampou was drawing widespread acclaim in the singer-songwriter market from Boston to California. Seasoned music critic Jay Miller from the Patriot Ledger sums it up:
"Discerning music fans hearing Les Sampou for the first time might wonder why her albums aren't selling in the millions. A standing-room-only crowd certainly went home entranced by Sampou; few of today's top songwriters produce more compelling or distinctive music than Sampou. As a musical storyteller, Sampou crafts vivid tales and delivers them with passion and flawless intonation. Saturday's show allowed a true appreciation of Sampou's soaring alto, as well as her multifaceted guitar work. Whether it was delicately finger-picked filigrees, heart-rending slide segments, slashing chords or sweet single-note melodies, Sampou created enough sound for a quintet all by herself."
In the decade of the nineties, Les Sampou performed at all the major folk festivals including Philadelphia Folk Festival, Winnipeg Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Falcon Ridge in NY, Strawberry Festival in California, and Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas where she won the coveted "New Folk Award" -- winning out of 685 contestants. Sampou also began giving workshops at Berklee School of Music, at festivals, and private group consultations on the Business of Music, Blues Guitar, and Songwriting.
Since 1993, Sampou has released four albums and is now working on her fifth: two on her own label, MoNando Music, and two with the well-known Cambridge label, Rounder Records. In 1993, Les released "Sweet Perfume," grabbing the attention of DJs and press people in the Boston area who gave her unanimous praise and support culminating in the Best New Artist award from WUMB, the state's popular folk and singer-songwriter station. Rounder Records signed Sampou shortly after that, and her second album, "Fall from Grace," was released in 1996, topping the Gavin Americana charts nationwide. Her third album, also on Rounder, was released in 1999 under the self-titled name of "Les Sampou," and it represented a sweeping change stylistically; a poetic folk rock collection. Her fourth is available here at CDBaby and is a collection of country and original blues. You can find out more about Les Sampou by visiting her website www.LesSampou.com.
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