A Mighty Wind
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A Mighty Wind is a 2003 mockumentary about a folk music reunion concert and the three groups that must come together to perform on national television for the first time in years. The film was directed (and co-written) by prolific "mockumentarian" Christopher Guest. The title probably alludes to the folk standards Blowin' in the Wind and Wasn't That A Mighty Storm covered by many singers of the early '60s.
The film was inspired by the 1982 documentary film The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time! about The Weavers' 1955 Carnegie Hall concert.
Guest's familiar cast of actors return from This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show for this film—Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr., Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Dooley, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock, Rachael Harris, Don Lake, Jane Lynch, Larry Miller, Jim Piddock, and Parker Posey are just a few of the actors who are returning to do their second, third, or even fourth film with Guest.
One of the songs from the movie, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, and was performed at the 76th Academy Awards by Levy and O'Hara (in character). The song was written by McKean with his wife, actress Annette O'Toole.
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Plot summary
Image:Mwind5.jpg After the death of an influential folk music producer (Irving Steinbloom), his children organize a reunion concert for the three most successful groups he ever worked with, in order to pay tribute to Irving's life. "The Folksmen", "The New Main Street Singers", and "Mitch & Mickey" all have their own issues with getting prepared for the concert. The New Main Street Singers are mostly new to the genre (being a reincarnation of the original Main Street Singers) and have a manager with a painfully bad sense of humor attempting to organize their antics. The Folksmen see the concert as an opportunity for a comeback, and while they express contempt for folk groups that have compromised the integrity of the genre for commercial success—an issue that comes to a head when a miscommunication about the concert playlist is discovered—they must find ways to engage a new generation of fans and accommodate a band member's unexpected lifestyle shift. Mitch and Mickey haven't spoken since a traumatic break-up decades before—now Mitch is a barely coherent emotional wreck, Mickey has married a model train enthusiast, and neither of them has played music in years. For these three groups to perform successfully on national public television, live, from New York City's Town Hall, will require a miracle of immense proportions.
The Folksmen
The Folksmen are a trio consisting of Mark Shubb (bass vocals and upright bass, played by Harry Shearer), Alan Barrows (tenor vocals, guitar, and five-string banjo, played by Christopher Guest), and Jerry Palter (baritone vocals, guitar, and mandolin, played by Michael McKean). They appear to represent a parody of Peter, Paul and Mary, The Weavers, or The Kingston Trio. According to the film, the Folksmen released six albums on the Folktown Records label: Singin' (featuring "Old Joe's Place"), Pickin' (featuring "Blood on the Coal"), Ramblin' (featuring "Never Did No Wanderin'"), Hitchin' (featuring "Loco Man"), Wishin' (featuring "Barnyard Symphony" and "Skeletons of Quinto"), and Saying Something, which broke with the tradition of using only acoustic instruments and single-word titles without final '-g's. Their biggest hit, "Old Joe's Place," reached position 17 in the charts. The appearance of The Folksmen in A Mighty Wind was not their first reunion performance. Before A Mighty Wind, The Folksmen appeared on the 3rd November 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by McKean, which saw an earlier reunion of The Folksmen and the performance of "Old Joe's Place". In 2001, the band "reunited" as the opening act for Spinal Tap's "Back from the Dead Tour". The Return of Spın̈al Tap as Spın̈al Tap's opening act for their Royal Albert Hall performance.
Songs:
- Old Joe's Place: their only hit song. Contains silly lyrics, such as a puppy in the parlor and a skillet on the stove. The Folksmen even sang the song on SNL.
- Never Did No Wanderin': describes, in amusing detail, how the singer has never traveled anywhere. Covered by the New Main Street Singers.
- Loco Man: a calypso song about a man who does not do a thing.
- Blood on the Coal: a western ballad about a Kentucky railroad circuit in the year of 1891. The Folksmen performed this song on MAD TV.
- Barnyard Symphony: a child-like song about a farmer and his animals. Contained audience participation.
- Start Me Up: an acoustic song that describes how people can relate to cars. Cover of The Rolling Stones classic.
The New Main Street Singers
Image:Mwind3.jpg The nine pastel-clad "New Main Street Singers" are patterned after The New Seekers, The New Christy Minstrels and The Rooftop Singers. Writers Levy and Guest's initial outline for the film had this neuftet singing in unison as a musical joke.
That idea was dropped and John Michael Higgins's intricate vocal arrangements were used instead. In the film, the original Main Street Singers had released such albums as Songs of Good Cheer (featuring "Just That Kinda Day"), Strolling Down Main Street (featuring "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon"), The Main Street Singers in Bethlehem (featuring "The Good Book Song"), and Sunny Side Up (featuring "Fare Away"), before breaking up in 1971.
The New Main Street Singers were formed by George Menschell (Paul Dooley), the sole survivor of the original Main Street Singers. They are managed by the obnoxious Mike LaFontaine (Fred Willard), whose fifteen minutes of fame came by way of the failed TV program "Wha' Happened?" which lasted less than one season during the 1970s. The new group is centered around Terry Bohner (John Michael Higgins) and his wife Laurie Bohner (Jane Lynch). Laurie is a former adult film star and is the co-founder, together with her husband, of Witches in Nature's Colors (WINC), a group of modern-day witches that worship the power of color.
Songs:
- Just That Kinda Day: a song about optimism in a pessimistic world.
- Fare Away: based on the novel Moby Dick, this song was a big hit in 1968.
- The Good Book Song: based on stories of the Bible.
- Never Did No Wanderin': covered the Folksmen's hit song, with more enthusiasum.
- The Main Street Rag: the Main Street Singers' theme song.
- Potato's in the Paddy Wagon: a silly song about a girl who won a sheriff's heart.
Mitch & Mickey
Mitch Cohen (vocals and guitar, played by Eugene Levy) and Mickey Crabbe née Devlin (vocals & autoharp, played by Catherine O'Hara) may represent a number of folk music duets, including Ian and Sylvia, Richard and Mimi Fariña, or perhaps Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. In the fictional reality of the film, they released seven albums together: meet Mitch & Mickey (which contains the song "One More Time" and whose cover looks suspiciously like that of Meet the Beatles!), If This Rose Could Talk, Songs From A Love Nest, Together Forever (featuring "Kiss At the End of the Rainbow"), Over the Moon, Live At the Folk Place, When You're Next To Me (featuring the song of the same title). The font used for the group's name is the same font that folk group Peter Paul & Mary used and the covers for "Together Forever" and "Live at Folk Place" have references to PPM album covers. After their breakup, Mitch went on to record three poorly received solo albums: Cry for Help, Songs From A Dark Place, and Calling it Quits.
Songs:
- When You're Next to Me: Mitch and Mickey's last song together.
- One More Time
- The Ballad of Bobby and June: a story about two lovers who lived in the American Civil War.
- A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow: their 1966 hit, which in reality was nominated for an Academy Award.
All three folk groups, along with the audience, sang "A Mighty Wind" together as the finale of the concert.
Trivia
In an interview done during the film's publicity, Annette O'Toole stated that many of the songs were written when—in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks—plane groundings meant she and husband Michael McKean had to drive from their home in Los Angeles to Vancouver, where O'Toole's show Smallville was being filmed. Along the way, to amuse themselves, they wrote the songs, one of which was nominated for an Oscar.
The Town Hall scenes were filmed at the restored Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.