Les Sampou and Kerri Powers at The Linden Tree

Linden Tree Concerts present:

Les Sampou and Kerri Powers, strong original songs,

bluesy with a lot of soul, bits of jazz and folk rock and roll.

Saturday, January 11^th at 7:30 pm, $25 (under 18 $10)

Linden Tree concerts continues into 2025 with encore performances with two of our favorite women singer-songwriters Les Sampou and Kerri Powers. Both sets will feature a lot of blues with bits of jazz and rock & roll.  This year’s concerts are held at the Wakefield Lynnfield Methodist Church on Vernon St. Our regulars cite the friendliness, affordability, and exceptional national talent presented each month.

Les Sampou 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. Chartsand 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..After cutting her teeth in the streets, Les began playing area clubs, before Sampou found the coffeehouse scene. 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.

When Sampou and Rounder parted ways, 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.

But, it wasn’t until her album ‘LONESOMEVILLE,’ that Sampou feels like she “hit her stride.”recorded Lonesomeville live in two days with Ducky Carlisle, mix engineer, added his acclaimed rock edge to the Americana set of blues and soul-tinged country tunes..“Powerfully expressive, her new album, “Lonesomeville,” was a personal Top Ten favorite of the year.” STEVE MORSE, BOSTON GLOBE/ ROLLING STONE“’Lonesomeville’ evokes a Tom Waits-like world.” SING OUT  Many more songs to come,

 Les dedicating another  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.

 Singer-songwriter Kerri Powers channels blues and soul with an eye-to-eye, earthy sensibility that makes for honest listening and reflection. She’s your sage girlfriend speaking from the heart and does so with a new collection of songs written from a place of grief and longing – something that speaks to us all. She’s one of the finest country blues fingerstyle guitar we’ve had on our stage. “Powers’ exceptional vocals are matched with outstanding songwriting. A lifetime of creativity infuse her original songs with mournful, redemptive catharsis.

With ‘Love is Why,’ Powers’ first self-penned full-length album since 2018, the New England-based artist explores the universal emotion of love and its huge influence on our decisions. In particular, she examines love in the context of holding on or letting go through human loss and grieving. The album’s original songs were written during the pandemic and after Powers lost her father, whom she calls “my best friend.”

Recorded in 2021, Kerri says, “I wrote the songs from a place of loss and grieving and went from there.” “Writing the songs was hard but a necessary part of healing. At the end of the day, all the songs were written from a place of love for humanity and the need to spread the message that love is essential.”

Kerri’s critically acclaimed album “Love is Why” has been praised by notable music journalists Lee Zimmerman, John Apice, Bucky O’Hare, and more and has been reviewed for Americana Highways, No Depression, Blues Blast Magazine, as well as landing on several ‘Top Albums of 2023’ lists for non-comm and Americana and Blues radio. “When it Rains” stayed at the #1 spot on the Roots Radio Rock Music Charts for several weeks.

“I don’t know where this young lady came from, but it’s got to be a secret place. This is not the kind of singing and performing that can be easily taught. It has to be in your spirit, in your blood, and the fact that she is from the Northeast will confound the artists down South, in the Delta, in Memphis, Clarksdale, Austin, and Nashville.” John Apice/No Depression

Tickets for this concert are $25. Homemade baked goods and beverages hot and cold are sold before the show and during intermission. Doors open at 7 with the show beginning at 7:30pm. For preferential seating call 781 246 2836 by noon on performance days.

Linden Tree concerts are now held at the Wakefield Lynnfield United Methodist Church at 273 Vernon St.  Wakefield, MA 01880 Easy to find from 95.  Parking Lot by church rear entrance.  Handicapped access too. For more information www.LindenTreeCoffeehouse.org