The indubitably unique Peter Stampfel, known across many decades for solo work, collaborations and as a member of 60s visionaries The Holy Modal Rounders and, briefly, The Fugs, demands for a word that means “eccentric to the power of 10”. The 86-year-old’s latest album, Song Shards: Soul Jingles, Stoic Jingles, Vintage Jingles, Prayers and Rounds (Jalopy), credited to Stampfel, Friends & Daughters, displays not so much a vocal style as a vocal condition, somewhere between acute laryngitis and death throes. A revered originator at the crossroads of folk and psychedelia, here he offers a series of almost four dozen song snippets containing, firstly, aphorisms such as The Obstacle Is The Way and in part two, hilarious remembrances of vintage radio jingles (Libby’s Canned Food, Prell Shampoo). One early review called…
