HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS
I Make A Wish For A Potato (Rounder Heritage)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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I Make A Wish For A Potato is a compilation of songs drawn from the work of the Holy Modal Rounders and some of their various extensions on Rounder Records, an association that goes back over two decades. The Rounders' idiosyncratic acid folk isn't everybody's idea of great music, but for those who get it, it's always a good time. Founded in the early sixties by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, the Holy Modal Rounders have been a folk duo, the musical background for the Fugs, an acoustic rock band, and electric jug band and just about every other unconventional musical configuration you can imagine. No matter how unconventional their musical costumes might have been over the years, though, the body of music they have dressed up in those disguises has always been drawn straight from the deepest traditions of North American music.

Covering the output of Stampfel, Weber and their sundry collaborators, notably Michael Hurley, from 1979's Going Nowhere to 1999's Too Much Fun!, this is a great collection for those who might have lost track of the latter day Holys, or who missed out on them altogether. As the Holys, the Unholys, the Clamtones or whatever, these guys have created an original body of music that has attracted a devoted cult following. Think of I Make A Wish For A Potato as a religious tract in song, and get yerself saved.

Track List:

Happy Rolling Cowboy * I'm Getting Ready To Go * Low Down Dog * Rotten Lettuce * Bonaparte's Retreat * Bad Boy * Random Canyon * You Got To Find Me * Lazy Bones * Nova * Coldest Woman * Year Of Jubilo * Sweet Lucy * Impossible Groove * Synergy * Robbin' Banks * Slurf Song * Everything Must Go * Goodbye To Booze * She's More To Be Pitied

© 2001 - Shaun Dale