Les Cousins: The Soundtrack Of Soho’s Legendary Folk and Blues Club

Les Cousins is a 3CD compilation that focuses on the mid-60s haunt of the emergent folk and blues scene in London. The album features a host of big names who visited the venue, many of whom went on to national success.

Les Cousins was a folk and blues club located in the basement of a restaurant on Greek Street in London’s Soho. It became a home and the epicenter for the folk revival of the mid-1960s, where musicians met and learned from each other.

The club was influential in the careers of pioneers such as Al Stewart, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Alexis Korner, Strawbs, Roy Harper, Paul Simon, and many others.

The club’s vital importance to that scene is now commemorated with a triple-CD featuring folk’s illuminati from that period, as well as more obscure names who performed at that Greek Street basement. Some tracks on the compilation are being released on CD for the first time.

Compiled and annotated by folk historian and Folk Roots editor/publisher Ian Anderson, who also performed at the venue, ‘Les Cousins’ pays fitting tribute to a unique time and place in UK folk music history.