The Barry Louis Polisar Tribute Album: Potentially Awesome

No, that's not the name -- it's my verdict.

I've known for awhile of the tribute album consisting of Barry Louis Polisar covers, produced by Polisar's son Evan Aaron Cohen of the Radioactive Chicken Heads. But now it's got a name -- We're Not Kidding -- and, more importantly for the purposes of this website, songs for your listening pleasure.

I use that phrase "listening pleasure" advisedly, because the songs I've spun thus far have been uniformly winning. I started out with the familiar names -- Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, Elizabeth Street, Tor Hyams, Ham & Burger, The Boogers -- and all of those tunes worth the time. (Check out the electric guitar on Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke track.) And then I moved to the unfamliar, the top of the page. After 4 songs, some fabulous, none less than interesting, that's when I realized that this could be, well, potentially awesome.

A 2-CD set could be too much Barry Lou, but the combination of Polisar's songwriting with the varied musical approaches and high quality production (never Polisar's strength) make me very eager to hear the final product, set to be released this year.

Comments

[Bill Childs]

Hey, Elizabeth Street exists still? Playing them on this week's show and wonder out loud on the show if they're still around. Cool.

[GBK Gwyneth]

I've heard rumors about this, but it is sounding better and better. Really can't wait, now!

[Barry Louis Polisar]

Thanks for the recent write-up on the upcoming album. My son Evan is in college and did a jazz cover of one of my songs for the album.

The album is being produced by Aaron Cohen from Los Angeles. Aaron had my albums growing up and now fronts a band in California, The Radioactive Chicken Heads. Actually, many of the cover songs that Aaron has collected are from bands whose members had my recordings when they were kids. These covers are really amazing and I can't begin to tell you how fun it is for me to hear my songs re-imagined for a whole new generation.

Barry Louis Polisar http://www.barrylou.comNot just Barry's song from JUNO

[Gary Park]

When is this album coming out?

[Stefan]

The album's available now digitally via iTunes and CDBaby (Polisar's page above has the relevant links).

Physical copies very, very soon.