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This is a reissue of the first two Holy Modal Rounders records, resequenced according to the artists' original intent and including two unreleased songs from the time of the recording (1963-64). Perhaps the most earsplittingly original duo of the entire folk revival, the Holy Modal Rounders (fiddler-banjoist Peter Stampfel with guitarist Steve Weber) merged the raw energies of rock, traditional American folk, and blues in a weird, whimsical manner (later dunderheadedly termed "acid folk"). The Holy Modal Rounders performed screeching yet subtle versions of old numbers by the likes of Clarence Ashley, Vernon Dalhart, and Uncle Dave Macon, updating tunes like "Hesitation Blues" with a countercultural reference or two (their version of that song contains the first recorded usage of "psychedelic"). This is one of the coolest things about the Rounders--as Stampfel writes in the liner notes, their basic approach to an old tune was to "hear song, forget song, try to remember song while adding your personal wrinkles, bingo!" An irreverent wit pervades the disc, from pop-tune parodies such as "Mr. Spaceman" to their original folk-based songs (which were neither preachy nor ham-fisted--a true rarity in '63) such as "Blues in the Bottle" and "Hey, Hey Baby." The result not only sounds way less corny than anything else from the era, but hews much closer to the raggedly strange, sublime Americana sounds of Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs, and Charley Patton. --Mike McGonigal
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4Men With Beards * 180g * stereo * US * * * * *
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If you like the Holy Modal Rounders, this is the one for you. With the exception of Indian War Whoop, which is unusual to say theleats, and The Moray Eels Eat, which is great but different, HMR Vol 1 & 2 is typical of everything else. It contains bundles of folky stuff, and as a double LP on 1 CD, you probably won't need anything else. Unless, of course, you become completely obsessed with their individual style....
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
22 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Deranged And Delightful - A Classic Resurfaces
29 Sep 1999
Format:Audio CD
I'd been searching for a rumored import CD release of this infamous double album for some time. My worn out vinyl copies had long before disappeared into the closet of some greedy roomate with good taste, but the memory of the infectious hop-head hoedown music of Stampfel and Weber was fresh and my lust to hear "Junko Partner" and "Euphoria" again was undiminished. When tried Amazon one day recently on a lark, my shock at seeing this release nearly cost me my new trousers...
This first incarnation of the Holy Modal Rounders played basic old-time fiddle/guitar/banjo music...a mix of traditionals and originals. Except that they did it loaded on a diverse pharmacopaeia, the lyrics of the traditionals often mutated to reflect their chemical tastes, and they did it in 1962-63!!!
What can I say...hope I haven't scared anyone off. It's great fun, highly musical, and a little profound (all while being very silly). A _Long_ overdue rerelease with a couple of previously unreleased tracks to boot. THANK YOU!!
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Rooster chews tobacco/and the hen uses snuff
26 Jan 2000
Format:Audio CD
Back in the day (and a good many years ago it was) the Holy Modal Rounders came a-barreling over the chunkity dirt road of 'traditional' music like a shanty Model T rewired to run on heavily-cut street meth and driven by a large-breasted, cigar-smoking beatnik chick who counted off the miles by means of a reg'lar stream of cuss-words the likes of which hain't been heard since the days of Walt Whitman... Stampfel and Weber rode shotgun, plinkety-plunking and cackling their old-timey cackles. Thank god these two albums have FINALLY been given a proper reissue. Irreverent, speedfreek'd to the nines, pulling your "high lonesome" and your "low down dawg" strings at the same time like a pair of demented puppetmasters, this never fails to make me wet my pants with laughter.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
35+ years laters and still awesome!
18 Jun 2000
Format:Audio CD
It's about time some audio wizard had the smarts to combine these two seminal albums. At a time when folk was trying too hard to be taken as "art" and not "folk music," the Holy Modal Rounders put a little psychedelic spin (listen closely to Hesitation Blues, the first time the word "psychedelic" -- sorry Robert Johnson, but you'd probably approve -- was supposedly used in lyrics) and added some fun to folk music. Some songs are still in artists' catalogues. For proof, check out Leftover Salmon, whose third CD was "Euphoria" (album title and song), and this is the source. Anyone into Americana that slams into cajun/folk/hillbilly/Piedmont-style blues/old-timey/Fuzzy Mountain String Band with space music should check this compilation out. The audio quality is sterling! The legacy of the Rounders (whose name graces the Mass. record label, Rounder) cannot be estimated. Roots music wouldn't be the same today without the contributions heard on this. Absolutely, absolutely, essential. Five stars only because I can't give it 10!
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