We saw it yesterday. It brought back memories of The New Christy Minstrels,(early John Denver)(Barry McGuire) Back Porch Majority, Serendipity Singers, Rooftop Singers (yes there was a little sendup in there with the 12 string), Limelighters, KT, Up With People, Brothers Four and a look-alike for Peter Yarrow and Bob Gibson in the Folksmen. Ramblin Sandy Pitnick was there. I have actually heard the diatribe against "commercialism" by one of these types of groups.

I disagree with the reviewer for the NY Times. There was a great political sendup in that Randy Sparks et. al. including many of the folk icons were not political in the least. They were show biz figures who found a way to the market. That was one of the points of the movie. Even "Kwinto"(quinto for Fifth Brigade)by the "historian" in the Folksmen drawn from the Spanish Civil War made that point cleanly.

One hilarious moment is when the Main Street Singers do an intense pseudo-Lonesome Travler type song and end up with the major chord (a hoky arrangment device used ad nauseum in those days) had me on the floor.

Mitch and Mickey were composite Roman-a-clefs which it would not be prudent for me to mention. They were very touching in their innocence. The cult-like call of the performers to the stage to see if Mitch and Mickey would kiss at the end reminds me of the nonsensical discussions people would have in Cambridge about Joan Baez's love life. The question offered in those days was "does Joan really know love?"

There was a peculiar little magazine in the Fifties (a throwaway mimeod thing) called Gardy-Loo floating around the streets of Greenwich Village Washington Square that had a gossipy quality not unlike the mindless banter in the movie groups' rehearsals. I think the film makers did their research well. They might have been there.

I remember Randy Sparks' Ledbetters in LA as well as Doug Westons' Troubador where I was an erstwhile musical consultant for an ill- fated group called the Men which later shrivelled into the Association. I remember a squeaky clean John Denver in the New Christy Minstrels. Irving Steinbloom might have been a sanitized version of the late Al Grossman or a sendup of Harold Leventhal (though both were and are more astute music people then Steinbloom and family. The stage set with it's significant Arch at Washington Square was a nice touch.

There was the obligatory scholar who gave his bearded erudition on the folk scene as well.

The movie caught the innocence of that time. The obligatory reunion concert says much for the drippy nostalgia that many "folkies" have.
There was no malice in the movie though, which I respected. The lyrics for the send-up songs were quite clever. They had a kind of banality that one even hears today in the guise of "folk music". I love this mis-appropriated bad rhyme scheme of "e-qual-i-tee" in the song Mighty Wind.

It seemed to me that I had met all of those people personally in my travels from LA to NY to Boston to Chicago. Love to get my friend Erik Darling's take on the movie since he was a part of that scene for a while with the Tarriers and the Rooftops. The movie could have used Al Arkin who could have put a great comic edge into it.

The picture is a "hoot" in every sense of the word. I liked the audience animal calls lead by the songleading Folksmen. They weren't as funny as Lou Gottlieb, though. i remember Lou's take on the "autonomous C chord". He spoofed himself and the pop-folkie revival while he was taking part in it.

All in all, it was fun. Not as satirical as it could have been had they consulted above mentioned people such as Arkin, Darling and some others. Will Holt, Jean Raskin and others could have added a touch or two. Actually, the practitioners of the commercial folkie scene could have added their own touches. Trav Edmondsen could give them some funny stuff.

They could have Alan Lomax's drunken ranting and raving at Bud and Trav at the Village Gate or Alan and Al Grossman wrestling at Newport like folk sumi wrestlers over the amplification of Paul Butterfield. But these are topics for another film. Maybe they should have a sequel. I'd go. It was Positively Fourth Street.

Frank Hamilton