A Mighty Wind: The Album
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Free Music Notes for A Mighty Wind: The Album
Free Music Review: Something Is In The Air!
Hit: 5 Stars
WOW! Faux Folk Music,that really works! ( Take that Sinead O'Conner! ). But seriously....The casts of "Waiting For Guffman" and "Best In Show",return and regroup for The Great Folk Music Scare of the 21st Century!!
It's hard to believe The Folksmen have been singing "Old Joe's Place" since the 1980's!! ( Yes,they debuted on Saturday Night Live,the same night,and what a co-incidence,as Spinal Tap did! ). Guest,Shearer and McKean,have had this on the back burner for years,and it's so cool to see it come forth. Fans of The Folksmen,will also recall them from "Return Of Spinal Tap" ( singing "Cumbya"),and as the opening act for Tap's "Back From The Dead" Tour.( Where their hilarious version of "Start Me Up",sprouted wings.). The Folksmen are so well done,the fine line between parody and reality are almost too surreal! ( How does Christopher Guest sing with that chipmunk voice,and make it work???!! ). The songs are brilliant and each member gets a solo vocal piece. Great stuff from them!
Not to down play The Folksmen....they obviously are the "pros",so their tracks are all musically excellant. But what of Mitch and Mickey & The New Main Street Singers? Well....whether folk music makes you want to cringe or sing along,will determine how much you like them. They do brilliant work. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara cut their singing teeth on "SCTV",but who knew they played as well? Levy does a brilliant Gordon Lightfoot-esque vocals,and guitar,and O'Hara plays the autoharp(!!!). The New Main Street Singers,featuring vocals by John Michael Higgins,Jane Lynch and Parker Posey,are so homogenous and clean,you want to squirm! ( Right down to their "nice version" of The Folksmen's "Never Did No Wanderin'" )
If you are a Folksmen fan,you've already purchased this as I write,but definitely buy it for Mitch & Mickey,and The New Main Street Singers too! A fun and funny package! ( And....there's a bonus,non-film segment,of Mitch & Mickey in concert! )
And by all means.....SEE THE FILM!!!
Free Music Review: It's a P-A-R-O-D-Y!, and a loving tribute
Hit: 5 Stars
Saw the movie this weekend, and I must say it's one of the funniest movies I've seen in recent years. Those who listened to this CD without paying attention to the words can be forgiven for not getting that the songs are parodies, because the style and music are perfectly in tune with folk music from the 60s. That's what makes this movie work so well. The people involved in making it obviously have affection and respect for the folk music of that time, and it shows in this gentle, yet VERY funny send up. Taken superficially, the music is very well done and very authentic. Yet, if you actually listen to the words, the movie makers are slyly poking fun at the genre. Take the lyrics of the Folksmen's (led by Harry Shearer) big hit, "Old Joe's Place":
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
And a smelly old blanket
that a Navajo wove
...
There's sausage in the morning
And a party every night
There's a nurse on duty
If you don't feel right
And, of course, since the neon sign at the diner is always broken, the chorus says:
"So if you've got a hankerin, I'll tell you where to go.
Just look for the busted neon sign that flashes 'Ea-a-oe's'."
The CD has bonus tracks that weren't in the movie (among them, a funny Folksmen version of a Stones classic "Start Me Up") and if you put it in your computer, you can see a music video of Mitch and Mickey's "When You're Standing Next to Me" that sounds like the version that plays over the end credits of the movie.
As an interesting note, this bogus folk group, The Folksmen, actually performs, and in an ironic twist, once opened for Harry Shearer's OTHER parody music group, the heavy metal band Spinal Tap (containing the very same people), but were booed off the stage by fans who thought they were real and who wanted Spinal Tap. As Harry Shearer puts it "We were booed off the stage in favor of...OURSELVES!"
Free Music Review: A silly, setimental sendup as well as a top notch folk album
Hit: 5 Stars
I've loved the work of Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy's mockumentary style over all three of their movies. A Mighty Wind is the most sweet, sentimental and musical movie of the three. Waiting for Guffman and Best In Show are of course the other two. I was very pleased with the movie, as it is a tad darker and the plot is bit more serious. The music throughout the movie is outstanding and gives us a deeper glimpse into the wellspring of talent this unique ensemble cast is capable of offering.Now to the album. I saw the film and was immediatly taken by the great songwriting and remarkable performances of the cast. All the principles sing and play their instruments. No overdubs or studio standins. It is expected that Spinal Tap aka The Folksmen are no strangers to music and their renditions of "Never Did No Wanderin" and "Blood on the Coal" are true to the folk roots and hit home with a tongue in cheek authenticity. The New Mainstreet Singers are a saccharine sweet parody of the New Christy Minstrels and the Rooftop Singers. They perform goofy over the top campfire singalongs like "The Good Book Song" and "Potato's in the Paddywagon" with great hooks and harmonies. However, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara steal the show and the album with some truly beautiful and touching duets. As the long estranged former husband and wife team of Mitch and Mickey, they convey catchy and genre perfect interpretions of the coffee house style like "When Your Next To Me" and "The Ballad of Bobby and June" and are taken right from the pages of the best duos of the 60's. The absolute highlight is the wonderful and affectionate "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" It is arguably the films climactic moment as well as a true folk song for the ages. I can't overstate the quality of the performances of Levy and O'Hara. I demand a Mitch and Mickey album. This soundtrack is a gem.
Free Music Review: This is an insanely great album!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album leaves me speechless. I'm a big fan of the work of Guest, Shearer, McKean, Levy et. al., and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie "A Mighty Wind", of which this is the soundtrack. But the movie wasn't by any means the funniest thing to come out of this very talented group of people (I think "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman" were both better, and "This is Spinal Tap", of course, is legendary). Nevertheless, it was clear from the movie that the folk song parodies were dead on, so I got the soundtrack album. I've just been listening to it for the last two hours; every time I finish it I start playing it again. The songs are THAT GOOD. There are three groups here, with three different personalities. The Folksmen (consisting of the three members of Spinal Tap: McKean, Guest, and Shearer), stick closest to the folk formula. Their songs are very enjoyable both from the humor standpoint (what they do to the Stones' "Start Me Up" will have you rolling on the floor) and also musically. The New Main Street Singers are so unctuously sweet that they'll put you into a diabetic coma; "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon" is their best song. But the real surprise is Mitch and Mickey (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara). Their four songs are astonishingly beautiful and not played for laughs at all. This is way, way beyond mockumentary good; these two have real talent (songwriting as well as singing), and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this album wins some Grammy awards. I want to hear more songs from them (and from the other groups too). The album ends with the title song, performed by all three groups together, which is also a terrific song (and has a nice joke at the end, if you can catch it). This is spectacular work -- it might just bring folk music back into style. Way to go, guys!Free Music Review: One of the best soundtracks I've ever heard!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I remember looking at this CD on Amazon, but since I hadn't seen the movie yet, I didn't want to purchase it. After I saw the movie finally, I realized I could have bought this CD before I saw the movie and loved it just as much.Think of some of the really great music-movies (I mean movies where music plays a major role but is not a musical) you may have seen. FORREST GUMP may come to mind, as well as the two AMERICAN GRAFFITI movies, and maybe O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?. These are movies where the story is driven by the music.
A MIGHTY WIND now joins those ranks. But there is one slight difference. There's one thing that sets A MIGHTY WIND on a higher level than the rest. All but one of the wonderful folk songs on this CD were written by the people working on the movie. (The one exception is "Start Me Up" which was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.)
These songs were written for the movie. They were written by people you may have never considered great songwriters or great singers (but they are both). I'm talking about people like Michael McKean (Lenny of Lenny and Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley") who wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 17 songs on the CD. Then there's Eugene Levy (BRINGING DOWNN THE HOUSE) who wrote "When You're Next To Me" and "The Ballad of Bobby and June" and co-wrote two others. These two songs he, sings in beautiful harmony with Catherine O'Hara (HOME ALONE, BEETLEJUICE) who, herself, co-wrote "One More Time," also with Eugene Levy.
All of the songs on this CD are great American folk music, from the old days (long, long before my time) when a little bit of silliness could be blended with a little bit of old-fashioned sentiment -- and, whether it left you in tears or fits of laughter, beautiful poetry was always the result.