Until then I'll have to rely on 2003's A Mighty Wind for the purposes of this entry. I just re-watched it in fact, on the long obscure VCD format. (What can I say? I've been in Asia for a while now) At the time I remember being puzzled about the film's idea of folk music. These groups getting together for a tribute show to their manager from back in the sixties didn't represent the genre that my parents attempted (and failed) to get me to appreciate when I was growing up. The New Main Street Singers? Creepy evangelical music. The Folksmen? Purveyors of unfunny novelty songs about diners and barnyard animals. (Which is not to say the movie itself isn't very funny because it is) Mitch & Mickey? Yeah, they were probably the closest having clearly been modeled on Ian & Sylvia — not coincidentally played by fellow Canadians Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara respectively — but hardly voices of a generation or any of that claptrap.
It was only until I got older that I realised that my concept of folk was as manufactured as anybody else's. There have been figures like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg over the years to represent the "protest" side of folk (and in Dylan's case, that's really only some of the time) but that has only ever been one branch — and these three all wrote and performed love songs so it wasn't like they were always out in the streets with megaphones either (come to think of it, I'm not sure Dylan ever did that). Other folkies may have done some protest songs but few did so often and hardly any others ended up getting tied to them.
The truth is, folk has always been far more diverse than it's given credit for. Perhaps this is why a hip hop group like Arrested Development can get away with appearing at summertime folk fests that aren't as righteously puritan as others. Folk isn't so much a style of music than it is a way of life or philosophy. As such, a group of squares like The Kingston Trio hardly seem to belong at all anymore.
It seems like there's some polarization when it comes to their biggest hit "Tom Dooley". Young and impressionable student types in the late fifties and early sixties seemed to eat this shit up — and they'll stand by it to this day. The songs of our youths can do such things to otherwise rational individuals. On the other hand, subsequent generations have become far less charitable towards the first folk song to get to number one. Tom Breihan reckons, in his usual over-the-top fashion, that it "sounds like the rankest kind of poverty tourism". Such bluster for a mere pop song, you gotta love it. He seems to dock it points because of how the Kingstons allegedly trivialize a murder ballad by making it a "showcase for their tastefully plucked banjos and their bleached-out harmonies". Oh dear me.
I don't completely disagree with Breihan's critique but his overthinking it (and, seemingly, having too much sympathy for the song's subject who was on death row for murdering his lover and who also happened to have been a Confederate soldier; I can't say I'm losing sleep over him myself) makes me want to side with The Kingston Trio — at least up to a point. The critical grilling it deserves is for its undeniable blandness; otherwise, I don't give a shit. Taking the killer's side (or, more accurately, seeing it from his or her perspective) may be something Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen have done successfully but that doesn't have to be the only way to tackle a murder ballad. Some may opt for siding with the victim while others, like the Kingstons, use it for little more than reportage.
Simply put, "Tom Dooley" isn't worth the effort on either end. It's virtually impossible to see why folkies in '58 were so taken by it but it doesn't deserve the hate either. It's a record to feel extremely neutral about. For this reason, it feels like there isn't quite an equivalent to The Kingston Trio depicted in A Mighty Wind. The New Main Street Singers are much too cringey to come close while The Folksmen are somehow both far too serious and too much the lame comedy act. As for Mitch & Mickey, now you're just being silly. Perhaps I really do have to check out this Inside Llewyn Davis thing. If only Coen brothers pictures didn't bore me so — aside from The Big Lebowski of course.
Fifties' coffeehouse folk isn't for everyone but that's also the case with folk in general — and, indeed, every other genre. Like a lot of individuals who hit it big where others failed, The Kingston Trio got lucky. They weren't exactly chart sensations but they did have a few Top 40 hits until Dylan and Beatlemania put an end to them. Folk music owed a lot to them: they were around until the precise moment they were no longer needed. Funny how that works.
Score: 4
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Can Con
The Canadians are slowly starting to come on strong here. Even with Anka missing, three home grown entries are present. I've already gone over both The Diamonds and Jack Scott so let's focus on The Four Lads. If they had intended to make The Kingston Trio look like testosterone-fueled ruffians by comparison then they couldn't have been more successful. "The Mocking Bird" could actually be a good song if someone other than them had given it a go but perhaps they all understandably became turned off by this load of sheer crumminess. A welcome reminder that just being Canadian doesn't mean you should be given the benefit of the doubt. So they were Nickelback before Nickelback.
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