The Holy Modal Rounders: Too Much Fun! : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For more than three decades, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber have explored the boundaries and subsets of the blues, early country and folk, and sniffed out strains of pop melodicism and structural elegance that run through all these genres. Holy Modal Rounders' scattershot approach -- their lineup is ever-mutating, and they perform under a whimsical variety of names -- belies the core Rounders musical sensitivity and enthusiasm, which find particularly extravagant expression on this relaxed, bare-bones collection (their first in twenty years) of traditionals, originals and updated recordings. Now fiftysomething plus, Stampfel, Weber and bassist Dave Reisch share a practically telepathic musical connection: Weber's wild country scat-singing twangs and burns like Stampfel's note-bending banjo playing. Stampfel makes charming comments on forgotten candy bars and comic strips, and gives advice for bad backs; the whole package is loose-limbed and joyous. (RS 821)

ARION BERGER