NYC folk music icon Peter Stampfel (center) is a common sight at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theatre, but his performances are always unique.
Sunday night at Brooklyn/Red Hook’s cozy Jalopy Theatre, NYC folk music luminary Peter Stampfel (of Holy Modal Rounders and Fugs fame) was joined onstage by the Ether Frolic Mob, (not-so-much a backing band, as a revolving cast of collaborators).
Bob Dylan may have stolen the folk music spotlight in the ’60s, but Stampfel glows on his own.
An absolute icon of folk music (both in terms of caring conservation and reckless experimentation), it is astounding that a figure as innovative, influential, talented–and just plain fun–as Stampfel can play a show to anything less than a packed house.
Stampfel’s show Sunday night was a treat for those in attendance, few though they were: all kindred folk fans and many Stampfel’s actual kin folk. Happily, the Jalopy Theatre, with its church-like pews and walls adorned with oddball vintage instruments—both as decorations and sale items— makes a small crowd seem comfy, rather than awkward.
Part Spike Jones zaniness, part Alan Lomax reverence and part twinkle-eyed ’60s freaked-outedness, Stampfel is a rare performer–one that endures through the decades, sounding always contemporary and innovative, even when playing songs a century old.
Taking inspiration from Harry Smith’s legendary six-volume Anthology of American Folk Music, fuzzy childhood memories of wacky songs from Hollywood’s early musicals (”We Fell In Love on a Greyhound Bus”), and an array of early 20th century ballads that he’d played at a wedding the previous day (”They Didn’t Believe Me,” “Moonglow”), Stampfel used his creaky cartoon-squeak of a voice and infectiously exuberant personality to zip through several decades’ worth of music history in the span of a few well chosen banjo chords (typically C and F, if you were listening to his impromptu lessons between songs).
Always utterly excited, energized and invigorated by the music he is playing and –moreover– by his excitement to be turning other people on to his favorite songs, between numbers Stampfel unleashes breathless flurries of music facts and stories too exciting for the salesmen writing the Village Voice and Rolling Stone; Stampfel stammers and stutters and gropes for words as he works to spit out all of the details of his elaborate tales quickly enough to get back to the music. Stampfel’s crack band of seasoned and newer players kept up with his whims gracefully and showed their own strengths in turn.
No shoegazing or lecturing; no heavy-handed nostalgia. Stampfel’s music is an unrestrained celebration of music–and if that’s not worth singing about, nothing is.
Note: Stampfel plays a regular gig each month at the Jalopy. If you haven’t seen this rare, lovely venue: you should. And, if you haven’t seen Stampfel: you must–especially if you’re a musician, or music fan, in NYC (particularly those affiliated with folk, freak-folk, acoustic-whatever-you-want-to-call-it).
MUSIC: Peter Stampfel
MOVIE: Holy Modal Rounders documentary
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