Washington, D.C. 4/02/2010 08:14 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)
The Radioactive Chicken Heads: Barry Polisar's "I Looked Into the Mirror..."
Barry Louis Polisar sang "All I Want is You" in the hit film JUNO... and now the rebellious children that grew up with his music over 35 years have released a new tribute album called We're Not Kidding! A Tribute to Barry Louis Polisar.
These aren't your typical Barney/Wiggles/Raffi type songs. With titles like "Never Cook Your Sister in a Frying Pan" and "My Brother Threw Up on My Stuffed Toy Bunny," Barry's off-the-wall songs are re-invented into totally new genres; an Irish band covers Barry's song "Potty Training," and a Klezmer band sings "Don't Put Your Finger Up Your Nose" -- in Yiddish!
The 60 tracks on the two-CD album include hip-hop, folk, jazz and rock versions of Barry’s classic songs. Included are three versions of "All I Want is You" - sweetly sung by The Vespers, a female duo from Nashville; in French, by Eric Hartereau, a French folk rock singer based in Carrieres Sous Poissy (Brittany, France); a bluesy, upbeat take by Noga Vilozny from Santa Cruz.
"It's great fun for me to hear my songs re-created this way," Polisar said. "Having my song in JUNO was great--but this is even better."
The project is the brainchild of Aaron Cohen, lead singer of the LA punk band The Radioactive Chicken Heads. Aaron had Barry's albums as a child and claims him as his biggest influence. After Barry’s song appeared in JUNO, musicians from around the world began discovering and recording his songs.
We're Not Kidding! A Tribute to Barry Louis Polisar is now available from iTunes, Amazon.com and CDbaby.com. Officially released on April Fools Day, Barry is giving away free song samples on his web site:
http://www.barrylou.com/tributeAlbum.html
Barry Polisar’s first record, I Eat Kids and Other Songs for Rebellious Children, was released in 1975. He has published 16 CDs/albums and 14 books, including the just-released title, Curious Creatures. Polisar continues to sing for children and families, visiting schools and libraries all over the U.S. Visit http://www.barrylou.com/.