Peter Stampfel is a name that should mean something to you, that is, if you are into folk music. Robert Christgau wrote, “Next to Bob Dylan, Stampfel is the closest thing to a genius that [the folk scene] produced.” First moving from Wisconsin to New York City in 1959, at age 20, Stampfel, along with Steve Weber, established the psychedelic and puckish folk group the Holy Modal Rounders, progenitors of freak-folk and psych-folk.
Their debut self-titled LP (1964) was produced by Samuel Charters, who, the year before the publication of his pioneering 1959 book, The Country Blues, had started the Orange Blossom Jug Five with the folk hero Dave Van Ronk. Moreover, the Holy Modal Rounders’ first album includes a rewrite of the traditional…