This project was conceived and produced rather quickly. In early 2004, my sister Kelli and I started talking about doing a cover album, since I had done a couple of CDs myself and had good recording equipment. Kelli is a talented musician who sings and plays piano, and wanted to showcase some of her talents with mine. The main page is here, where you can listen to all of the tracks. For even further reference, you can listen to the recording that inspired it all. We began recording in the spring, and it took only a couple of months. In retrospect, it was probably done too quickly, as we would often say "good enough" after more than three tries at any given recording. Plus, I hadn't yet discovered a good way to compress tracks and prevent spikes in volume. Since then I have, but there are faults here. Overall, though, it turned out very well considering it was our first time working together. I'll go track-by-track into each one to provide some insight.

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Track 1: "How Ya BOOIN'?"
This isn't a musical track, simply an excerpt from what is now an infamous recording that was done on Christmas Eve, 1986. That "Hi, Amy, how ya BOOIN'?" line has been repeated often enough to make normal people sick.....but we still laugh at it. For me, it was an early sign (at age 12) of the spontaneous humor, or weirdness, that would more or less be my trademark. Amy was a girl close to my age who had lived across the street from us from almost 10 years. Kelli and I had been fighting, yet decided to band together and crank call Amy. That line came from me yelling into the phone. Both Kelli and I had been babysat by her mom occasionally, and we were more or less friends. Except for when Kelli decided she was getting too annoying (at age 9, she was eerily intuitive about that kind of stuff). Amy would end up being my first kiss, and first girlfriend. But back then, she was mostly just stinky.

Track 2: "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones
Everyone has heard this classic song. But do you know it well enough to notice that the first line isn't what it should be? This happened because any time Kelli used to attempt to sing the song, she could never remember how it started. Quickly covering up this deficiency, she would craftily sing, "I was born in a half-pint liquor store" instead of, "I was born in a cross-fire hurricane". This song was done largely because of that hilarious mistake. It did turn out well, as she made up for it by providing good harmonies.

Track 3: "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog
Okay, Kermit didn't write this one, but he did make it famous. This is the tune my kindergarten class sung at our 1981 graduation ceremony, and it has always been a favorite. It also allowed Kelli to play piano. This is also the song we chose to do for Tamara. My favorite part about doing this song is watching people's reaction to the opening lyrics, as they try to understand exactly who is singing. I think I did a passable imitation of my green buddy, others say it's great. Either way, I like acting like a muppet.

Track 4: "Tuesday Afternoon" by The Moody Blues
This one is for our dad, who loves listening to and playing Moody Blues songs on his guitar (us Barr's have talent virtually dripping from our pores). I may cover other 'Blues tunes in the future, but this was a good one to start with. Listening to it now, I know I could improve the sounds a great deal by employing my newfound mixing knowledge, as the echo-less vocals don't quite match up to Justin Hayward's (well, no amount of mixing is going to do that).

Track 5: "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin
I wasn't about to let this whole "cover album" thing happen without covering some of my favorite artists. Granted, it's difficult to imitate Robert Plant, but we went with it. I was inspired to choose this one after listening to "How The West Was Won", an excellent CD/DVD package full of live material the band did at their peak. There is a slightly different drum beat used in certain parts that really caught my ear, and I had to use it. Overall, it could have used a lot more of a charge, as it doesn't ever have enough energy. At least, not for my tastes. So, consider this to be the mildest cover of a hard rock song you'll ever hear from me.

Track 6: "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" by Curtis Lee
I have a whole cassette tape of '50's songs, and this is one that Kelli and I both thought was a lot of fun. I think it's the most challenging one vocally because there were so many different voices to listen to and figure out exactly what they were doing. We did a good job here, and I think we more or less nailed the vocals.

Track 7: "If I Fell" by The Beatles
This one is for mom, but was also one of our favorites anyway, so it was fun to do. This is one of the best on the CD.

Track 8: "Soma" by The Strokes
This entry helped us span six decades of music, from the 1950's to the 2000's. I'm very interested in a lot of these new bands that are playing simple rock songs. No pretentious crap that's supposed to be super deep and meaningful. The songs are about whatever they need to be, then they move on. This was our favorite from what we had to choose from, and our vocals are working great together.

Track 9: "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan
I can't recall exactly what drew us to this one, but I do remember really liking Mellow Yellow the drink when I was a kid. That's a good enough reason for anything. This was a difficult one to get down right for some reason, both the music and vocals.

Track 10: "My Uncle Used To Love Me But She Died" by Roger Miller
K-Tel records made our childhoods much more fun. In 1976, they released "Kooky Tunes", a collection of over two dozen funny, silly songs. We used to listen to them a lot, and this particular one always made us crack up. The absurdity of the title itself was funny enough, but the entire song is a gem. Kelli does a couple weird things at the end to cap it off.

Track 11: "Blackbird" by The Beatles
This was one of the first songs I learned on guitar and have always loved it. The first few notes even inspired one of the very first songs I wrote with John Biggs, called "A Storybook Life". That one was a good song in itself, and whenever I play it for Tamara, she tears up. I'd like to think it's because of my fantastic rendition, not because she's afraid I'll get sued for copyright infringement. "Blackbird" has always been one that I have wanted to cover, but my vocals were never good for it. I just happen to have a singing sister, so.....yeah.

Track 12: "Zilch" by The Monkees
I doubt many people have ever heard this one. It was on the one album that they actually wrote and performed their own songs on. This is just plain weird, and one of those that mom used to play for us when we were kids. Of course, we'd have fun trying to do each do our "part". I'm not so sure we did the original much justice, but it was fun to try.

Track 13: "Rhythm Section Want Ad" by They Might Be Giants
This is for Dan, by a rather obscure band that he and Kelli listen to. I had never heard the song before, but figured I'd give it a shot. The drums were a monster to reproduce, but once that was done, it turned into a fun song. Kelli's vocals have a different tone to them, something she needs to try to do more often. I have a feeling we'll be dabbling in more obscurities in the future. Don't ever say we didn't try to broaden your horizons!

Track 14: "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
This one sucked, only because Kelli wasn't involved in it at all. She says she didn't mind, but I actually did. I work on my own stuff all the time, including a few covers. But I really wanted to do the vocals, and we couldn't figure out anything for her to do. I won't ever de-collaborate a collaboration again!

Track 15: "You Learn" by Alanis Morrisette
This is Kelli's best effort by far. She doesn't sound like Alanis, but pretty much turns the song into her own, it's a really good performance. All of my music faded into the background, becoming a backdrop to her voice.

Track 16: "No Time" by The Guess Who
We used to sing the ending to this really crazy, it was always fun to mess around with it. We pretty much had to cover it. We included a couple weird moments as well as the ending, making it an appropriate prelude to the last song.

Track 17: "Wanna Be Startin' Something" by Michael Jackson
This ties in directly with the Christmas Eve 1986 tape. It's what is playing in the background as Kelli and I start to fight. When I first approached Kelli with the idea of doing this song, she wasn't convinced. She agreed to do it, but couldn't see how we could pull it off. Well, I had some "special" ideas for it. I managed to get a good sound for the music part, and my vocals on the final cut were actually my first, sung very casually, as I was simply testing. When Kelli heard them, however, she insisted that we keep them. Then she did hers and let herself get a little wacky. Then came the best part. I put clips from the old tape into the song. Not only did it work pitch-wise, but these moments blend perfectly with the vocals. The whole thing is hilarious. You would never know what the Hell was going on in it if you didn't know.....um......well, right, of course you wouldn't. But if you're reading this, listen to the song and you'll know what's going on. I think it confuses people who know us because they never believe that mine is one of the voices. But I had just turned 12 and my voice wouldn't start changing for another month. SO SUE ME, you little........