*** Les Sampou

FALL FROM GRACE

(Flying Fish)

Les Sampou's Flying Fish debut (her second album) highlights her sexy, muscular vocals and confident blues picking on a dozen carefully drawn originals that -- in the tradition from which she stems -- stick close to home. Home is, in fact, a recurring theme on this rootsy, Mason Daring-produced effort, whether it's a nostalgic return to childhood in the countryish "Home Again" or the bittersweet inertia of trailer-park life in the ironically titled swampy blues-rocker "Holy Land." Sampou is at her best when she's most direct, as on the raunchy "Bulls-Eye" ("When he hits it, girl/Gonna make you shout out loud"), which features former Muddy Waters sideman Jerry Portnoy's stirring harmonica, and "Two Strong Arms," a sistahs-doin'-it-for-themselves country-rock anthem. Sometimes Sampou is a dead ringer for Rory Block, and when she really lets loose she hits the spot that Melissa Etheridge must dream about. Far from being a "fall from grace," Sampou's latest is more like a great leap forward.

-- Seth Rogovoy

(Les Sampou's CD release show is at Club Passim in Harvard Square this Friday, November 15.)