After fictional folk music producer Irving Steinbloom dies, his children Jonathan, Naomi, and Elliott organize a memorial concert, which they hope to feature his three most famous acts: The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey.

Although some tension arises over whether to include "Skeletons of Quinto", a convoluted, somber song about the Spanish Civil War, in their otherwise upbeat set list, they clearly enjoy working together again.

Performers include life-long Main Street Singers fan Terry Bohner and his wife Laurie, a former adult film star, now founders of Witches in Nature's Colors (WINC), a coven of modern-day witches that worships the power of color, and former juvenile delinquent Sissy Knox, the daughter of Fred Knox, one of the original Main Street Singers.

Their manager, Mike LaFontaine, most famously appeared in a short-lived and mostly forgotten 1970 sitcom, Wha' Happened?, but is constantly puzzling others by quoting his character Li'l Eddie Dees' catchphrases, including the show's title, which was its tagline.

After a dramatic break-up years before the events of the film, Mickey seemingly moved on and has married a medical supply salesman, but Mitch broke down emotionally and has never fully recovered.

The three groups, all of whom have sunk to various levels of musical irrelevance since their respective heyday, agree to the reunion performance, to be held at The Town Hall in New York and televised live on the PBS-like station PBN.

The Folksmen have reunited, with Shubb, now a transgender woman named Martha, having revamped her wardrobe and continuing to sing in her deep bass voice, followed now by a girlish giggle.

[citation needed] Earlier that year, Guest, McKean and Shearer had appeared as the titular group in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, a parody of aging heavy metal bands.

In the commentary for the DVD release, Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy noted that, in a scene cut from the finished movie, it is explained that Menschell cannot play the guitar.

[16] San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle stated that it "gently caricatures the folk music scene with dozens of delicate brush strokes, creating a picture that's increasingly, gloriously funny – as in entire lines of dialogue are lost because the audience's laughing so hard."