Friday, April 27, 2012

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The Folksmen

Artist:The Folksmen
Song:Old Joe's Place
Album:A Mighty Wind: The Album





Christopher Guest is a humourist best known for creating mockumentaries about various subjects. The Folksmen is a folk trio featuring Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. They appeared in Guest's 2003 film A Mighty Wind but have been around since the 80s. Guest was born Feb. 5, 1948 in New York City. His father was a British diplomat who was appointed to the House Of Lords. When he died, Guest inherited that and has campaigned for abolishing the House Of Lords. Guest was part of The National Lampoon Radio Hour in 1974 and also appeared in the off-Broadway show National Lampoon's Lemmings. He co-starred in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap with McKean and Shearer. He also created The Folksmen for a 1984 appearance on Saturday Night Live. He has appeared in some films. But since the 1996 film Waiting For Guffman, he is mainly known for creating mockumentaries. The 2003 film A Mighty Wind is about a folk music reunion concert featuring groups who haven't played together in years and probably hate each other. Like all of his films, Guest wrote the script with Eugene Levy. But a lot of the scenes are improvised because the actors are used to doing that. The Folksmen is one of those three groups and they perform Old Joe's Place in the film. They are a parody of The Kingston Trio. The New Main Street Singers are a parody of The New Christy Minstrels and Mitch and Mickey are like Ian and Sylvia. They should have done a Phil Ochs parody but that's a minor quibble. The film is very funny and The Folksmen are very authentic. The soundtrack is available on CD. The Folksmen make appearances occasionally most recently in 2009. Christopher Guest's most recent mockumentary was the 2006 film For Your Consideration but he has appeared in other films and is a member of the music group The Beyman Bros. Here are The Folksmen performing Old Joe's Place at a phony tribute concert.

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