Andy Kaufman knew that irony at its finest is so close to honesty that it's hard to tell the difference between reality and imitation. Christopher Guest knows that parody at its best is duplication so dead-on that a wink is needed to remind you that it's all a joke. With a superb soundtrack to a troubled film, Guest and company's A Mighty Wind is art that is such a perfect imitation of life, it does in fact seem real. Were it not for the wink of the "mockumentary" packaging, even the most diligent student of the '60s might think that in A Mighty Wind they have found a lost trove of rarities and b-sides of those groups who could have defined an era along with Seeger, Dylan, Collins and the rest.
Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Eugene Levy have created a world with such wisdom that no aspect of the folk genre has fallen outside of their gut-busting purview. Their musical imagination takes wing as result of their decision to create three distinct bands: the typical pretty-boy trio called The Folksmen, the hootenanny "neuftet" of the New Main Street Singers, and the magical romantic duo of Mitch and Mickey. While the multiplication of styles renders the film version of A Mighty Wind at times aimless and rootless, it nonetheless makes the album a total triumph. The creation of these distinct modes of folk music allows the musical team full breadth to cover all the bases. Completely nailed is the ridiculously dreamy lingo of the revival: whether following a "rainbow's dream" or glistening in the "silver tentacles of the moon's rays", A Mighty Wind allows all of us escaping "mean old Mr. Blues" simply to "toss [our] cares away".
In a more impressive feat of artistry, these three groups not only have songs all their own, but share a common pool of faux "standards". McKean and Shearer's "Never Did No Wanderin'" is the "We Shall Overcome" of the Mighty Wind world: were it an actual song -- is it? -- musicologists could write theses comparing the roots version sung by the Folksmen with the extended, kitschy showmanship the New Main Street Singers impart to the song. Similarly, the eponymous closing track unites all three bands [as well as all of A Mighty Wind's various themes] in anthemic tribute to "Blowin' in the Wind". Notable for the manner in which the groups trade verses of the fake hymn of hope, "A Mighty Wind" demonstrates just how good this crew is at pulling it all off with a straight face. For, after listening to A Mighty Wind in its entirety, you soon realize that it is only in the last three words of the album's ultimate song that Guest et al. revert to a comical cheap shot. With the closing reference to said mighty wind, "It's blowing peace and freedom / It's blowing you and me," we finally receive the wink that clues us in that all of this is one wonderful joke.
The musical supergroup of the folk revival was The Weavers. In our alternate world of mighty winds, they are replaced by the feel-good, perma-grin nonet of the New Main Street Singers. Built on a saccharine foundation of overdrenched harmonies, syrupy lyrics and pie-in-the-sky morality, the New Main Street Singers are defined by their early album titles, Songs of Good Cheer and Sunny Side Up. They are a hootenanny with an emphasis on "hoot"; they actually seem to believe in the volk promise of their anthem, "Walking down main Street / Everybody's gonna sing." Their sheer size allows them to mock a capella groups everywhere with "Fare Away", a ludicrous reworking of "Sloop John B" that makes fitting reference to cabin boys everywhere. The humor of "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon" is indistinct from the sheer ridiculousness from the actual three human beings who take seriously the notion of Puff, a magic dragon. As can be seen in the hilarious "The Good Book Song" -- yes, religious folkies are not left out -- the true benefit of The New Main Street Singers is that they are by design the lightest-weight of the album's group, which allows them to provide wonderful moments of comic relief.
The Folkmen, however, are the real focus of A Mighty Wind. They posses the prissy, schoolboy charm that defined Folk luminaries like the Kingston Trio. Combining three voices, bass, mandolin, guitar and more, they use their harmonies to get through life like they get through naming their albums: Pickin', Singin', and Ramblin'. Their theme song, "Old Joe's place", is folk perfection: it's dream of folksy togetherness, of a place "where friendly folks can gather/To raise the rafters high", that is built upon a perfect building chorus highlighted by deep bass vocal breaks and numerous shouts of "Pick it!". "Loco Man" is a nod to the island-influenced original world music made most famous by Harry Belafonte; Shearer's put-on accent is almost as hilarious as the line, "He loco / Like ice cold cocoa." But the Folksmen are not limited to songs of whimsy and hope; they take seriously their place in the world and their ability to challenge the powers-that-be. In "Skeletons of Quinto", they use their Spanish skill to descry foreign plight in foreign language; their "Blood on the Coal" is a protest song so seemingly genuine that it actually might be on an early Uncle Tupelo album. Yet the greatest moment The Folksmen share with us all is their down-home version of the Rolling Stone's "Start Me Up", which begins by being cute, and ends with the album's high point of hilarity.
If the Folksmen are the jokers in A Mighty Wind's deck of 55, Mitch and Mickey are its King and Queen. Cast in the forge of a young Joan Baez and her protégé Zimmerman, Mitch and Mickey are a duo whose power is located in a woman's heartfelt voice providing harmony to a man's meaningful material. They make their protests [against the masters of the civil war in "Ballad of Bobby and June"], and sound sweet as lovebirds in the confessional "one more time". And although Mickey is chiefly parody of Dylan, his music ranges further, covering the bases of Simon and Garfunkel [Mickey is Art, mind you], as well as the mellow sides of Jefferson Airplane and Blind Faith. Each Mitch and Mickey song is a lost track from our favorite album; their humor is the subtlety of craftsmanship made stronger with just a hint of oneupsmanship.
The music of A Mighty Wind is so heartfelt and genuine that it is hysterical and touching at the same time. It is because the Folksmen honestly believe their song will affect those in Quinto that they need to sing parts of it in a language that can touch its natives. Those smiles are painted on the faces of all nine New Main Street Singers because they are actually all that happy. Mitch and Mickey -- and guest along with them or through them or both -- do want to convince us all that there exists "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow". Serving as the A Mighty Wind's real theme song as well as the entire point of the film, "A Kiss" discovers genius by realizing that its humor does not compromise it's beauty. In its fitting place at the end of the movie, the song has the power to evoke honest tears. So astutely approximating all we know to be real, A Mighty Wind is an album of anthems for a generation who never had the privilege to hear them. It is also a wonderful collection of hysterical songs that will not leave your brain for weeks and years. Mostly, it is fitting homage to a group of people and an ethos they shared about the power of music to brink folk together. A Mighty Wind is in many ways a big group hug, with a wonderful knowing wink at the end of its rainbow.
— 16 May 2003
