Peter Stampfel rules! He RULES! by Tom Kipp

I was going to guess that I own some of their work on that Broadside box set from a few years back, but now see that I was mistaken—

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Broadside-1962-1988-Various-Artists/dp/B00004VWX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1280939937&sr=1-1

So I’m not absolutely certain that I own anything at all by Koerner, Ray & Glover, alas.

Then again, I’ve never been all that hot for harp players in general, nor for white, blues-lovin’ folkies, no matter how skilled or sincere.

But I do understand that such folks DID provide the “gateway” to both urban and country blues for thousands of music lovers o’er the past 50 years, and I certainly credit that accomplishment.

In 2010 we’re just well beyond the need for earnest replication as a means of cultural transmission, now that we’ve got Amazon & YouTube as our “Global Jukeboxes”, and Wikipedia as our ubiquitous source of concise, generally reliable, historical/biographical info re: arcana of every sort!

The ORIGINALS are now so close at hand, it seems pointless to settle for derivative versions, no matter how mildly unique or even borderline compelling on their own terms [e.g. John Hammond, Jr., Larry Coryell, Paul Butterfield or Country Joe McDonald solo, et many al.], at least until we’ve [metaphorically] “worn out the grooves” on the earlier recordings of their idols.

Still, I feel as though I should investigate a bit further in this instance….

Thanks M,

Tom

P.S. If you haven’t yet investigated the work of my Pop Conference pal Peter Stampfel [Holy Modal Rounders, Fugs, HAVE MOICY! album, his solo albums with The Bottlecaps and those simply under his own name or various aliases], I suspect that’d be far more amusing, enlightening and especially FUN than Koerner, Ray & Glover….or anyone ELSE who came outta that great Greenwich Village folk scene of the early-Sixties, aside from Bob Dylan, of course. Here’s two links to pertinent commentary from one of his greatest champions, Bob Xgau—

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=1071

Here’s those brilliantly entertaining liner notes that Christgau mentions in his brief review of this latest Stampfel album, of which I’d been unaware until this morning—

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/PeterStampfel1

Amd it looks like Peter has yet another album coming out this month—

http://www.amazon.com/Outertainment-Peter-Stampfel-Baby-Gramps/dp/B003W5QJ32/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1280942454&sr=1-6

Very prolific for a gent in his seventies, that’s for sure, and such an astonishingly witty man. Also undoubtedly the nicest sorta-famous person I’ve ever met! [He’s called and e-mailed me on several occasions since the one time we met, at the 2004 Pop Conf, at which he performed about 30 of the songs he was then recording for his yet-unreleased Magnum Opus, which would have included one song from EACH year of the 20th Century, plus a 500-word essay about every one!

Peter has never found a label willing to release it, although I believe he finished selecting and recording everything a few years back already. Such a damned shame if it never comes out in the 4cd box set form he originally envisioned!

Fair to say that it may be the single recording I most want to hear and own, at this point in my life!

By the by, that Holy Modal Rounders documentary is well worth getting—highly entertaining and very moving, at the same time. It played here at The Northwest Film Forum a few years back—

http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Modal-Rounders-Bound-Lose/dp/B001D5F380/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1280942454&sr=1-8

Anyhow, so much Stampfel-ian goodness to enjoy!

Tom

P.S. Here’s the overview, courtesy of our pals at Wiki—

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stampfel