A Mighty Wind: The Album
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Free Music Notes for A Mighty Wind: The Album
Free Music Review: The secret ingredient is love
Hit: 5 Stars
Just as the movie "A Mighty Wind" didn't project a single frame of malice, bitterness or hatred toward the genre it parodied, the soundtrack album ("CD" doesn't sound right in reference to folk music) doesn't contain so much as a demisemiquaver of sloppy musicianship. Every tune is composed with the kind of love folk practitioners lavished on their sometimes tear-jerking, sometimes cornball creations.The performances are masterpieces of revelation. It was no surprise that Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest were skilled parodists of hard rock as Spinal Tap, but whowoulda thunk their Folksmen would recreate the barbershop-quartet-minus-one harmonies of the various "[INSERT NAME HERE]Trios" of the 1960s with occasionally spine-tingling precision?
Even more astounding are the singing and playing of Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as Mitch & Mickey. In film and on Second City TV, neither was allowed to strut their stuff the way they do here, running the gamut from toe-tapping love songs to anti-war protest and on to tender ballad.
The folk era's most commercial and least controversial artists were the various harmonic vocal ensembles characterized by amusement park balladeers The New Main Street Singers, modern-day successors to The Main Street Singers. Jaunty tempos, fluid harmonies and even a sanitized cover of a Folksman hit invoke both the sound and the commercial spirit of such acts.
As evidenced by other reviews here, you didn't have to live through the Sixties or know very much about folk music to laugh your fannie off while watching "A Mighty Wind" or to find yourself tapping your toes and singing along with the album. There's only one word for that kind of reaction.
It's love, baby. Peace.
Free Music Review: Awesome movie, awesome soundtrack...
Hit: 5 Stars
"A Mighty Wind" is an absolute hoot, especially if you've watched this troupe of actors through their progression of mockumentaries in "This is Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman", and "Best in Show." The movie manages to be both touching and hysterical, no small feat.
I always think that soundtracks are a hit or miss thing, and this soundtrack is definitely a hit. The songs from the movie are basically all included, with the special perk that we get to hear several entire songs that were only in the film in segments. The amazing thing about this album is that the songs were written and performed by the actors, and this is no simplistic, ho-hum stuff. The intricacy of the harmonies and accompaniments to the great melodies make the album worth a lot in its own right, let alone as a movie soundtrack.
My favorite two songs are "When You're Next to Me" and "The Good Book Song." The former, featuring the awesome talents of Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, is such a beautiful duet. And I'm hoping to include the latter during a worship service at my church. What a fun way to explain the profound truth that we would be better off if we would just do what the good book says!!
I'm not a particularly big fan of folk music, and I'm not a particularly big fan of movie soundtracks. And this is one of the best albums that we own!!
Free Music Review: Did we ever think that this was good music 40 years ago?
Hit: 5 Stars
As a Christopher Guest fan and a musician, I was doubly intrigued by the soundtrack. I had heard on NPR that there were extra songs on the CD, but I hadn't expected them to be so dead-on parodies of all of the dreck we listened and hummed to during the 1960's. If you don't believe it, just put an old Richard and Mimi Farina or Serendipity Singers record on your turntable, and you'll realize how banal this music was. And, the funny part was that I (and you) were playing and singing it! That's why I love the CD--it makes me cringe with familiarity and marvel at the production values on the recording. None of the other reviews have mentioned "Skeletons of Quinto" which is such a spot-on sendup of a Pete Seeger, Jose Marti "Guantanamera"-type song, complete with nonsense Spanish commentary spoken over the music. (By the way, did anyone notice that the nonsense Spanish was spoken with a Castilian accent, completely inappropriate for someone who is writing about being held down by The Man. And how about the "vivre de joie" reference--more nonsense, unless there's some version of French with which I'm not familiar).In any case, it's possible--and advised--to enjoy this recording, even if you don't know a whit about folk music, chord structure, self-important lyrics or anything else. It's a joy to listen to.
Free Music Review: You have to know it to make fun of it
Hit: 5 Stars
A wonderful companion to the latest Guest/Levy/EntireCast faux documentary. These songs are so evocative of the early 60s "Ivy League folk" era that one marvels at the fact that they're all newly written, especially for this project. Highlights include the hit "novelty song" that the Folksmen [Kingston Trio, Limeliters, etc.] can't seem to shake, "Old Joe's Place"; their earnest "authentic" rendition of the ridiculous "Never Did No Wanderin'" and then the whitewashing of that same song by the squeaky-clean New Main Street Singers [New Christy Minstrels]; two heartbreaking duets by Mitch and Mickey [Ian & Sylvia, the Farinas], "When You're Next To Me" and "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," beautifully performed by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara -- the former song is also included on a video clip that wasn't in the movie; and the rousing title-tune finale [listen closely to the lyrics on all of them, but especially this one, to find deliberately clumsy double entendres worthy of Spinal Tap]. There are a few other gems that didn't make it into the flick, including the piece de resistance: the Folksmen's inimitable cover of "Start Me Up" -- yes, the Stones song. Magnificent deadpan artistry, and perfectly credible simply as 60s citified folk music.Free Music Review: Great Film, Better Music!
Hit: 5 Stars
People who don't "get" the Folk era have no business reviewing this CD. Thank GOD The Beatles discovered folk music via Bob Dylan in 1964, lest their musical legacy be as meaningful as Herman's Hermits. Here's a headline: the title track of "A Mighty Wind" has more social relevance than the lyrics to "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." (And folk music is "white bread?" Odetta and Josh White will sure be surprised to hear that.)Frankly, the only thing wrong with "A Mighty Wind" the movie was that there wasn't enough music. Thankfully, this CD exists to rectify the problem. The most commercial of the Folk era artists are gently skewered here, yet their music is enjoyable on its own terms. Most of the songs are take-offs, but in the same sense that the Rutles' songs were affectionate, off-center versions of actual Beatles tunes. No true folkie would be ashamed to own this disc. Hopefully the DVD will include complete "vintage" performances of The Folksmen, Mitch and Mickey and even the "Serendipitous" New Main Street Singers.
I highly recommend that you see the film first, then buy this CD to fully enjoy a tongue-in-cheek, yet catchy-as-heck, tribute to the music that gave birth to the sixties.