The answer, my friend, still blowing in the 'Wind' ("A Mighty Wind" review)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | May 4, 2003 | LLOYD SACHS ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC

[Chi-townChief]

Can popular music be so hokey that it somehow does a cool 360-degree spin and becomes radical? As a young teen who never missed an installment of "Hootenanny," the early-'60s folk music series, I approached boy-girl groups like the New Christy Minstrels and the Serendipity Singers as straight-on as they approached me. There was nothing to read between their lines of wholesome cheer--at least not until Barry McGuire left the Minstrels and became Mr. "Eve of Destruction."

But seeing the Minstrels and Serendpitys reborn as the New Main Street Singers in "A Mighty Wind," Christopher Guest's winking valentine to those much-abused folkies who sang about farm animals and wanderin' while indulging in mirror moves as practiced as Led Zep's, I was struck by how daring a concept the group singing thing has become.

In this age of irony, the very idea of a septet of folk singers belting out songs in grinning unison, in carefully rehearsed arrangements and with rhythmic fortitude, defies convention as much as Bob Dylan did when he plugged in. Never mind that what the Main Streeters sing is laughable, or that Guest makes them out to be dizzy color-coordinated cultists. The performances stir you with their energy and insistent optimism--and color. At least they do in the concert sequences in the film, which have a kinky naturalism that the studio versions on the "Mighty Wind" CD lacks.

Following up his deadpan docudramas "Best in Show" (about dog contests) and "Waiting for Guffman" (about a backwater theater troupe), Guest imagines a concert tribute to a legendary and now deceased record label head. The show, broadcast live on public television, reunites after more than three decades the Folksmen (Guest and his "Spinal Tap" cronies Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, all of whom play and sing) and the star-crossed Mitch & Mickey (Eugene Levy as you've never seen or heard him and his matchless "SCTV" partner Catherine O'Hara).

One of the movie's running jokes is that the Folksmen and Mitch & Mickey consider the New Main Street Singers, the third act on the bill, contemptibly commercial, but pander to the audience no less cloyingly themselves. But it's worth noting that at a time when a pre-"Fiddler on the Roof" Theodore Bikel could draw an ovation on "Hootenanny" by playing guitar and harmonica simultaneously, audiences were starved for entertainment values, as dumb or shmaltzy as they could be. They loved it when the men and women in a band like the Minstrels acted like they had stepped out of "Oklahoma!" and when the baritone singer in a male trio hit those ridiculous low notes and when song lyrics were funny.

OK, I fess up: As a young teen who still hadn't discovered Dylan, the Beatles or "Shindig," I loved it. Even though I knew there wasn't something quite right about four grown men singing about Froggy goin' a courtin', the warm harmonies and strumming guitars and upbeat tone of the Brothers Four made the wrongness of it OK. And though I have long since parted with my Brothers Four and Chad Mitchell Trio and Limelighters albums, I have a suspicion that their entertainment values would still get to me, running past my need for deeper meaning and emotion. Through the veil of humor, they certainly did in "A Mighty Wind."

[Chi-townChief]

Link it if you can find it on the web.

[Chi-townChief]

Exotica is fantastic to listen to in the backyard on a summer's night with the Tiki torches going. However, I've discovered that it freaks out party guests pretty quickly. I tried playing "Quiet Village" and "Taboo" back-to-back and just about everyone either threatened to leave or smash my CD player.

[Chad Fairbanks]

http://www.pipercomputing.com/soa/031WellIntentionedBlues.mp3


Enjoy!

[Chi-townChief]

THANKS & PING

[martin_fierro]

Those are all the endorsements I need!

I'll see if I can rent it tonight.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Cool.

Funny stuff:

The scene from "Raging Bull"

"Lighting...strikin'...agin. Yeah."

The chicken wing on the Smokey Joe.

Corky's dance.

(Can't wait to hear what you think of it.)

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Actually, I should have said: "I just wanted a drink of water."

; )

[P.O.E.]

I always liked the hearty cheer that buoyed Mitch Miller's interpretations, especially when backed with accordions.

It's hip to be square.

[jocon307]

"...with the Tiki torches going..."

Don't know if this song fits with the genre, but do you know "Hawaiin Cowboy?" a great tune! Don't even know who does it.

[Riverman94610]

I saw Mighty Wind and,while it WAS entertaining and funny in parts,really left out the Left wing politics and movements that the Folk music of that era spun out from.
I never cared much for Folk music as a youngster but compared to the garbage pasing for music nowadays it is pure genius.
Riverman

[Mr.Clark]

I think "Spinal Tap" is one of the funniest movies ever made, especially for those with some knowledge of the music business. The Stonehedge scene and it's aftermath still make me laugh.

"This one goes to eleven!"

[ewing]

You won't be disappointed..

[martin_fierro]

BAH!

Local Blockbuster says it's signed out until next week.

I shall have to forage for it.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

It's worth it. Really. (This is Spinal Tap is my all-time favorite movie...and I really liked "Guffman" - I could watch for about the tenth time today and laugh my guts out.)

[martin_fierro]

Here be Tap Tunes!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Why, thank you, kind sir!

[edwin hubble]

"I still own a Chad Mitchell Trio album that I bought in 1963."

The Kingston Trio's many albums are more available now than at any time since 1965. I recently bought a couple of their CDs. They are re-mastered, some have 2 vinyl albums to a CD.

[js1138]

Quiet Village is a masterpiece. Of what, I'm not sure, but I recently bought the LP at an estate sale. I never quite got it out of my head from childhood.

[Slings and Arrows]

I loved "Guffman," but have one bone to pick with it: I was in one of those small-town theater groups (I was the band director...OK, I was the band), and the actors in "Guffman" are too good! It takes the real thing to reach the true level of bad accomplished in such circumstances.

[Scenic Sounds]

Thanks fot the ping. ;-)

Fun movie - I even tried to promote it here a bit a few weeks back.