“A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow”? I was told that McKean wrote the songs, though I don’t know for sure if that’s so, but who performed the song? Did Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara actually sing the song, or who was it?
I’m pretty sure all the actors in the film did their own singing.
If so, then that’s pretty impressive because it’s a fairly decent soundtrack.
I was especially impressed by Eugene Levy’s singing.
Let’s not forget that 3 of those people tour the world as Spinal Tap. IIRC they’ve opened for themselves as The Folksman.
I take it you haven’t heard “My Bubbe Made a Kishka.”
I think Eugene sings like he has two left feet.
After the movie came out, “A Mighty Wind” toured as a stage show, with all the same people. I saw it, and nothing was lip-synched, as far as I could tell.
Who’d’a thunk it, some actors actually have musical talent as well! Not very strange at all.
John Michael Higgins did most if not all of the vocal arrangements for the New Main Street Singers, as well as playing one in the film.
Heck, didn’t Levy and O’Hara perform that song at the Oscars? If it wasn’t them singing, I’m sure this would have become widely known.
Two of my favorite comedies of all time are Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show, but I have never gotten around to watching A Mighty Wind, at least in part because I can’t stand folk music…
That said, how is AMW compared to Guffman or BIShow?—I assume it features the same basic stylistic approach, but as someone who LOATHES the subject matter, is it worth checking out?
Well, I think it’s even better than those two, but then I can’t relate to not loving folk music in the first place, so YMMV.
A good chunk of the movie is the characters performing their mock-folk songs, so if you’re prepared to hit mute or fast-forward a lot… yes.
I didn’t find it as funny as BIShow, but I still thought it was great. It’s a more tender (for want of a better term) film than their other comedies. I also loved the music in the film.
I prefer it to Guffman, and rank it with Best In Show. Do you need to appreciate pretentious heavy metal to enjoy Spinal Tap? Do you need to enjoy bad local community theater to like Guffman?
While much of the film has fun with the pretensions of folk music, you will actually be missing part of the film’s charm if you don’t like (the Oscar nominated) Kiss At the End of the Rainbow. And several of the other songs make the movie better by their inclusion.
Who knows, it might open you up to folk music… which really doesn’t seem like a genre worthy of loathing. There are good and bad folk songs.
You’re doing yourself a disservice by avoiding it. I’m not a fan of folk music myself but the thing is, every folk song in the movie is poking fun at folk music, either thematically (“Never Did No Wanderin”), stylistically (“Old Joe’s Place”) lyrically (“A Mighty Wind”") etc. (The jingle “Sure Flo,Sure Flo, Don’t leave them cold and damp” is hilarious). Just writing this now brings back so many memories of great lines, great set-ups - you need to watch it.
If anything, I think seeing AMW boosted my enjoyment of folk music. The soundtrack is absolute favorite of mine for roadtrips.
If you’re a Folksmen/Tap fan, there’s a DVD of the “Unwigged and Unplugged” tour that’s worth watching. They do a lot of stuff from A Mighty Wind. McKean and Annette O’Toole do a sweet version of Mitch and Mickey’s song–which isn’t surprising, since Michael and his wife wrote it.
BTW, does anyone know if Guest and Co. has anything in the works? There were hints of a new project a couple of years ago, but I don’t see anything on IMDB other than “Untitled Christopher Guest Mockumentary”.
And I love folk music.
Just think of it as proto-heavy metal.
Sinky’s Green Suspenders!