The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally a duo (members Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber) who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Although they achieved only limited commercial and critical success in the 1960s and 1970s, they earned a dedicated cult following and have been retrospectively praised for their reworking of early 20th century folk music as well as their innovation in several genres, including freak folk and psychedelic folk. With a career spanning 40 years, the Holy Modal Rounders were influential both in the New York scene where they began and to subsequent generations of underground musicians.
As the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel and Weber began playing in and around the Greenwich Village scene, at the heart of the ongoing American folk music revival. Their sense of humor, irreverent attitude, and novel update of old-time music brought support from fellow musicians but was controversial amongst some folk traditionalists. In 1964, the Rounders released their self-titled debut, which included the first use of the word "psychedelic" in popular music. After their first two studio albums, the duo briefly joined the newly formed underground rock band the Fugs in 1965 and helped record the band's influential debut album.
Following their exit from the Fugs, the duo released two albums that experimented with psychedelic folk before they expanded their lineup to a full rock band by the end of 1968. The Holy Modal Rounders' expanded lineup included playwright Sam Shepard as a drummer and many short-lived members before it stabilized in 1971 with keyboardist Richard Tyler, multi-instrumentalist Robin Remaily, bassist Dave Reisch, drummer Roger North, and saxophonist Ted Deane. Beginning in 1975, this backing group would also play with Jeffrey Frederick as the Clamtones. In 1972, Weber and the band relocated to Portland, Oregon, while Stampfel stayed behind in New York. Although Stampfel would describe Weber as his "long lost brother",
History
1963–1965: As a duo
Formation and initial influences
Fiddle and banjo player Peter Stampfel and country-blues guitarist Steve Weber were introduced to each other in May 1963 by Stampfel's girlfriend Antonia Duren (or Antonia Stampfel), who was mononymously known as Antonia. Stampfel grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York City in 1959, where he soon became heavily influenced by Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Weber grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he met musicians Michael Hurley and Robin Remaily, both of whom would later collaborate with the Rounders. According to Stampfel, he and Weber began performing together in New York City not long after being introduced, eventually settling on the name the Holy Modal Rounders.
Although taking much inspiration from traditional folk music, in particular Anthology of American Folk Music, the duo quickly showed an inclination to "update old-time folk music with a contemporary spirit", per critic Richie Unterberger. According to Stampfel, "the purist attitude at the time was that this golden age [of folk music] was gone, and the right way to do [folk music] was to try to recreate it down to the pop and scratch on the old 78 RPM record. I mean, that's certainly a valid viewpoint, but it wasn't mine." Unterberger wrote that they "twisted weathered folk standards with wobbly vocals, exuberantly strange arrangements, and interpretations that were liberal, to say the least."
Stampfel himself described the genesis of his approach to music at the time: "I got the idea in 1963: What if Charlie Poole, and Charley Patton, and Uncle Dave Macon and all those guys were magically transported from the late 1920s to 1963? And then they were exposed to contemporary rock 'n' roll. What [would] they do?" Dylan himself was a fan of Stampfel, who had been a part of the New York folk scene since Dylan's arrival, and listed Stampfel as one of his favorite singers during a 1961 interview before the Rounders were created.
With these intentions to update traditional music in mind, Stampfel began to change the words and add new verses to the traditional songs they played, later reflecting: "when I started writing songs... I mostly did it the way Bob Dylan started writing songs in 1961, which is putting new words to old songs". Fellow folk singer Dave Van Ronk recalled that "they were stoned out of their birds all the time. Everybody knew it, they made no bones about it, and they were having fun." Author Jesse Jarnow also recognized this influence, commenting the Holy Modal Rounders were "overtly inspired by both Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and drugs."
From the beginning, the duo's unorthodox approach to covering old-time music was negatively received by some folk purists. A review of the duo's debut album in the famed folk music magazine Sing Out! dismissed their music as "parody of folk song and folk content... with a sort of fear written into it—fear of coming out into the open as serious performers." Despite their seemingly irreverent approach, however, Swartley noted the duo "pursued traditional American music with an archival passion to rival that of the New Lost City Ramblers." Peter Tork of the Monkees was an early fan, reminiscing the duo was "absolutely hilarious" and brought "a whole new level of authenticity" to the scene. Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground similarly praised the Rounders, saying that "the Fugs, the Holy Modal Rounders, and the Velvet Underground were the only authentic Lower East Side bands. We were real bands playing for real people in a real scene." The duo was also friendly with and occasionally performed with Karen Dalton and Luke Faust, who briefly played the jug with the duo, during this time. Concurrent with the Rounders' original incarnation, Stampfel wrote a regular column for the folk music magazine Broadside called "Holy Modal Blither".