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Full disclosure. My wife, Marcy, went to High School with Barry Polisar. They were friends and Barry would sometimes play his songs for her. So, when we went to Marcy’s 25th high school reunion I was able to put a face to the name. Marcy had made me aware of Barry and his success as a writer and performer. Frankly, I was more than a little jealous of Barry and his success, making his living as a songwriter and performer. I have been writing songs since high school and had had piddling success. So, I purposefully didn’t really pay much attention to Barry’s successes as his career progressed.

Boy, what a mistake.

Consequently, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when I went to interview Barry at his home. What I found was a most gracious and talented person who clearly had worked hard and deserved all the success he has achieved. Barry’s story was so interesting and had so many twists and turns, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the man.

This is part 2 of my conversation with Barry Louis Polisar, a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and author of books for both kids and adults. If you haven’t listened to part 1, I strongly suggest that you do so before listening to this episode. In part one we introduced Barry and found out about his early years, his origin story, and his career as a songwriter, singer and performer of children's songs.

As we ended the last podcast, Barry had just been censored from performing at most of his usual schools. In this episode we’ll find out what happened and how Barry’s career expanded into movies and ads. And we’ll hear about some of Barry’s prose and poetry. Then, finally, we’ll hear about what’s next for this talent.

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Imagine that you write and perform your own children’s songs. For years you have been performing these songs in various schools and school systems across the country. Songs that you wrote and have been playing in the same schools for years. And then imagine that someone in the school system suddenly decides that your songs are not appropriate for children because they encourage bad behavior. Then another school system hears about it and they ban you and your songs as well? Soon the entire country is reconsidering their take on your brand of children’s songs. What happens next? What do you do? Where can you turn?

Pura Vida. I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes podcast. In his episode we’ll be interviewing Barry Louis Polisar. Barry is a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and novelist. His career spans almost 5 decades and has so many twists and turns we’ll need two episodes to fit them all in. In this episode we’ll discover Barry’s beginnings: how he started and what led him to success he’s had as a writer of children’s songs. So, sit back, buckle up and come along for the ride.

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How do you summarize the life work of an artist? How do you condense and focus on the essentials of an artist’s entire career? Especially when confronted with a body of work as large and varied as Tret Fure’s.

Like her namesake The Furies, Tret is sometimes angry, beautiful, and dark. A warrior whose flaming sword is her voice – and whose shining shield is her wit and the inventiveness of her writing. She comes flying in on her guitar steed ready for battle with red eyes speaking truth to power and exposing hypocrisy.

And yet, Tret always gives us hope, a path through the madness of our world. And I like to think that this is largely due to the love and support of her family. I mean, isn’t it our families and friends that keep us all from going off the rails?

I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes pod cast. Welcome to part two of two episodes where we’ll continue our interview with the multi-talented, Tret Fure.
In this episode we’ll discuss Tret’s advocacy, her family and what’s next for the talented singer songwriter performer teacher and pet portraitist. If you haven’t listened to Part One, I highly recommend that you go back and give it a listen before listening to this episode

Tret has asked for donations to No Child Goes Hungry as her preferred charity. Please consider making a donation.

Also you can contact Tret directly through her web page tretfure.com if you'd like to attend one of her classes or want to go on one of her songwriting trips or would like a personal guitar and/or songwriting lesson or would like a portrait of a cherished pet.

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This episode’s artist career spans the decades since the early 70s all the way to today. With 18 albums and hundreds of songs, she has continued to grow and evolve over the years. Her talent and advocacy are second to none. To say she is prolific is an understatement. One of the hardest working people I know, she continues to record, tour and teach, live and online.

From the first time I met Tret Fure long, long, ago I fell in love with her voice, her guitar, and her song writing. A lot has changed since then so let’s cut my intro short and get on to the interview.

I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes pod cast. Welcome to part one of two episodes where we’ll interview the celebrated and talented singer/songwriter, gardener, and puppy painter, Tret Fure.

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Next up in the Reverb series is #4. I’ve combined my second episode 1-2 Friends, published on September 8th of 2021, with episode 3-5 Dottie Lou- Fable and Fact published on August 19th of 2022. This reverb episode includes the songs, “Fallen Angel”, “Hard Road”, and “Dottie Lou”. The next section is my conversation with Dottie Lou, and a solo guitar and voice version of the song. At the very end is a mashup of all the different versions and bands with whom I’ve recorded the song.

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Waaay back in August of 2018 I was attending a Livingston Taylor songwriting and performing retreat at Boston University. We spent the day working on our songs and performance with Liv, Vance Gilbert and Melissa Ferrick. After dinner we all got our instruments and had an informal song swap in the main meeting room. This was kind of a round robin sort of thing where each of us would play a song and then the next person would play and so on. There was one guy who had been pretty quiet during the workshop, a little standoffish if I’m to be honest. So, I was pretty astonished when it came his turn to play. He pulled out his Martin and sang a great song, well performed. That person is Tod Pronto. I was impressed with Tod and started following his progress as he opened for Liv and Jonathan Edwards and other folk greats. Then, I found his Sunday morning 9am streaming show, Coffee with Tod on YouTube or on Facebook. Then, I found out that he also has a regular cartoon, Midlife Thesis, that is published every week.

I mean, what can’t he do?

I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes podcast. In this episode we’ll interview dear friend and accomplished singer/songwriter/cartoonist Tod Pronto and listen to three of his songs recorded live during our visit.

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Over the past three interviews and five episodes, I was beginning to get the feeling that we were drifting too far afield of the original intent of this podcast. That is writing and performing songs. However, each of our subjects are song writers.

Mark Baxter our Vocal Behaviorist has been writing songs all along since he started in rock bands in the last century. Yaron Gershovsky, band leader of the Manhattan Transfer, is constantly writing and publishing new, original songs. And Debra Monk, our star of stage and screen, early in her career, collaborated on the songs for the Tony nominated “Pump Boys and Dinettes” and other musicals. So, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn’t wandered too far from my original purpose. All these people are legitimate songwriters. This is often what the life of the songwriter is like. Precious few can live off their songwriting talent alone.

Now, I’m not a rich person. Oh, I do Ok, and I don’t really lack for anything, but I don’t have a lot of disposable income. So, I’ve decided to sort of pay back these three with the only currency I have. I’ve written three new songs. Each one of the three subjects inspired a different song. Today we’ll hear those songs and follow the process of their creation.

Welcome to the 50th episode of the Tim Tunes podcast. Begun on a whim almost three years ago, I started with the stories and recollections of my best songs. I thought I’d be done once I made through the first batch. But episode after episode, I managed to find some songwriting or performance-based content to share with you listeners.

In this episode we’ll explore three recently written songs that were inspired by the subjects of this season’s podcast. If you haven’t listened to episodes 5-1 through 5-5, I suggest you go back and give them a listen to better appreciate these songs.

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Welcome to Part 2 of our conversation with Debra Monk. If you haven’t heard part 1 then I highly suggest you do so before listening to this episode. You won’t want to miss the stories of how she developed Broadway and off-Broadway shows with the likes of Kander and Ebb and Steven Sondheim, not to mention a few shows and songs she helped to write.

In this episode, we’ll discuss Debra's experience on the Kander and Ebb and Holmes musical “Curtains”. Then we’ll discuss a little more about Debra’s TV and Movie career, followed by her advice to actors, what she is doing currently and what the future may hold. So, plug in your ear buds and get a flagon of your favorite beverage as we continue our conversation with Debra.

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