I'm a big Christoper Guest fan. (So are you. Admit it.) Spinal Tap? Fuggedaboudit. Brilliant! Nigel Tufnel is hilarious. So, if you ask me, is Corky St. Clair from Waiting fo Guffman (though I realize opinions vary on B-list Guest).
It was clear as early as Tap that Guest was an accomplished musician. Then came A Mighty Wind, his feature-length riff on the folk revival. Pretty funny stuff, I thought. Not as funny as Tap but impressive that Guest could perform an entirely different style of music.
Nothing in those earlier performances, however, prepared me for this: his latest CD, The Beyman Brothers: Memories of Summer As a Child. When I popped it in my player, the album genre came up as New Age, but that doesn't really describe it. It's yoga music. Don't get me wrong, I like yoga (quite a lot in fact), but who actually listens to the playlist on their own time?! It's music that you would play while driving through Big Sur on the way to the Eslin Institute. I actually heard a rain stick in one song!
Guest (Doc Beyman) plays mandolin mostly, while his band mates fill in with lilting acoustic guitar riffs and electronics. Given today's date, I wondered briefly if Guest was putting me on. Then I decided I only wished he was putting me on. This thing is genuine. The album photos (very well done, btw) are by Guest's wife, Jamie Lee Curtis. If you are a yoga instructor of just think that this might be your kind of thing, you can check it out at www.dharmamoon.com. Otherwise, repair to the purlieus of classic Guest and check out his bit of clowning on YouTube: it's Tufnel advocating for animal passports! (Type in Nigel Tufnel - Travel for Animals.) Or better yet, rent Spinal Tap (yet again). The extras alone are worth the price of admission.
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