Where to begin with Peter Stampfel? As a founding member of The Holy Modal Rounders he is partly responsible for some of the strangest music made. "We played American music," he says in a high-pitched, cracked and brittle voice, "from many decades, played in many different styles and often all at the same time."
Certainly, the Rounders's notorious gumbo of folk, psychedelia and vaudeville ensured they would be both castigated and worshipped in equal measure. Bizarre details, such as their appearance on the soundtrack to Easy Rider and the fact that their drummer was Sam Shepard, only add to the incredible air that circulates everywhere through Stampfel's remarkable CV. Not everyone from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin can claim to have been a member of the Holy Modal Rounders, the Fugs and the Merry Order of St Bridget String Band.
His latest band, the Du-Tels, has him in cahoots with Gary Lucas, who formerly played with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley. The title of their new album, No Knowledge of Music Required, certainly points the Stampfel way and, if any further reassurance is required for old Rounders fans, the fact that it features a version of the Teletubbies theme should be proof that Stampfel has not lost it.
"Well life is bizarre when you look at it," he says. "In fact, I consider all life bizarre, considering the alternatives - like being dead for instance. I used to sing songs for my mom when I was sitting in the potty. When I was two years old, I would sing Blues in the Night, Paper Doll, American Patrol and The Marine Hymn. I liked pop music from when I was tiny, but I was exposed to rock 'n' roll in 1954 through songs like Sixty Minute Man and Work With Me Annie. They weren't seen as rock 'n' roll because it didn't have a name quite yet."
And so we're off into the weird and wonderful world of Peter Stampfel. He lives in SoHo, New York, and works as an editor of science fiction books. "I got the job through nepotism," he chuckles, "It's my wife's company." But, day job or not, Stampfel is still performing - either with the Du-Tels or as the Wilderness Brothers when joined by his old Rounders partner, Steve Weber. They haven't given up just yet.
"Well, I actually thought that the Rounders were going to be a huge hit back in the early 1960s. When I realised that this was not going to happen, I was quite heartbroken. But I'm still open to the possibility that, given the new interest in traditional music and the fact that more people are into various old forms - as well as new forms informed accurately by old forms - things might improve."
Stampfel's interest in the old forms came initially with the folk boom. He was at college at the time and, like so many of his peers, he got interested in bands like the Weavers - one of the many groups struggling against the impact of the blacklist. As Stampfel puts it: "Anything with a folk tinge was seen as having a communist influence, so it was dropped." But Stampfel, already a firm rock 'n' roll fan, was also drawn to the folk efforts of people like Pete Seeger, whom Stampfel credits as single-handedly inspiring so many - touring constantly and outwitting the thought police through sheer perseverance. But the real musical revelation for Stampfel was when he first heard the Harry Smith Anthology - the hugely influential collection of American music then virtually unknown outside its own localities. "It was the first place I ever heard the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson - all that stuff. And what struck me was how bizarre it was. And remember that, at the time I was listening to it, this music was not as far back as the Beatles are from us now. I was listening to this music from 1927-33 and it was 1959. So it was practically recent!
"But when I heard these old people, I assumed they were all dead. Of course, many of them were still alive, but everyone thought that these people just had to be dead, because what they were doing was incredibly remote and strange. The idea that any of that stuff could still be existing in the world was considered beyond any possibility."
Also well beyond possibility was the manner in which the Holy Modal Rounders took this music and twisted it yet further. When their first album appeared in 1963, it was immediately evident that they had to be approached with some caution, particularly by the determinedly serious folk contingent. The Rounders were unflappable, seeing themselves as part of a long and venerable tradition of out and out wackiness in American music.
"The tradition was crazy! I mean, Doc Smith's Champion Horsehair Pullers, the Fruitjar Drinkers - these were the groups that we were patterning ourselves after! There was a tradition of serious 'outthereness', but of course we were thought to be disrespectful. The only review it got was in Sing Out magazine, and it was a total blast at us for being tasteless and not serious - and it was a terrible thing not to be serious. But when I heard the Smith Anthology, I realised just how bizarre traditional music was and, in turn, how bizarre the US actually was. And it suddenly gave me a much greater respect for the bizarre nature of the United States of America."
And suddenly he reflects on the possibility that, if somehow he had gone to Nashville when he was 10 years old, he might have met Uncle Dave Macon. A long speculation follows about how he could have had banjo lessons from the man himself. If only he had known, if only had gone to Nashville, if only he hadn't been 10.
"Maybe later," Stampfel consoles himself eventually, "in heaven." And is it likely that there are banjos in heaven?
"Well if there aren't any banjos in heaven, it sounds like hell to me." Now that's something you don't hear every day.
Peter Stampfel and Gary Lucas - the Du-Tels - play Whelan's Dublin, next Tuesday