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Children’s musician Barry Louis Polisar said he considered his song, “The Town of Round,” a throwaway.

The song is about a square living in a city of circles. It had never been one of Polisar’s most popular works. He wrote it decades ago.

This year, the song was included in a Grammy-Award winning album.

“My entire life is one irony after another,” Polisar said.

Polisar of Burtonsville has been playing children’s music for three decades. In the past several years, two of the songs he wrote at the beginning of his career were included on Grammy Award-winning albums.

Polisar contributed a song to the album, “All About Bullies … Big and Small,” which won Best Children’s Album at this year’s Grammy Awards.

The album is a compilation of artists whose songs send an anti-bullying message to kids. The album is a fundraiser for the Pacer Center's National Bullying Prevention Center.

“In all of my work there is an emphasis on individuals not going along with the crowd,” Polisar said.

Polisar has been writing and singing children’s songs since 1975 and has released more than 16 albums.

He grew up in Adelphi in Prince George’s County and has lived in north Silver Spring and Burtonsville area for more than 30 years.

Polisar’s song, “All I Want Is You,” is in the opening credits of the 2007 film, “Juno.” The soundtrack for “Juno,” including Polisar’s song, won a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For a Motion Picture.

Polisar wrote “All I Want Is You” 30 years ago and included it at the end of his second album as an afterthought, simply wanted to pad the song list, he said.

“I liked it,” Polisar said. “I thought it was a cute song. It was just there and there it sat for 30 years.”

Polisar said “Juno” director Jason Reitman contacted him about using his song while he was making the movie.

Polisar said Reitman told him he had been searching iTunes for a song called, “You Are The One I Want,” but accidentally searched “All I Want is You.” Polisar’s song came up and Reitman told Polisar he immediately fell in love with it.

“It was totally one of those cosmic things,” Polisar said.

Polisar travels to three or four schools per week for concerts. His songs include favorites such as “My Brother Thinks He’s a Banana,” “I’ve Got a Teacher, She’s So Mean,” and “Don’t Put Your Finger Up Your Nose.”

He describes his style as satirical and not preachy — songs with a message at which children can laugh.

“It’s undercutting,” Polisar said. “I like to think I’m a little more subtle.”

Alison Mocko, 40, of Bowie saw Polisar perform when she was 8 years old. She made her mom buy her the albums.

“His humor is that subversive humor that appeals to that wicked sense of funny,” Mocko said.

Last month, Polisar became a family tradition when he performed at Mocko’s daughter’s elementary school.

“When he performs it’s about making funny faces and using funny voices that catches the attention of the kids,” Mocko said.

“It’s been amazing to have a career on my own terms,” Polisar said. “I have never had to sell out.”

Polisar attended the University of Maryland College Park, majoring in literature with the intention of being a teacher.

While at Maryland, Polisar used to carry his guitar everywhere. In 1975, a teacher once overheard him singing and playing and invited him to perform at her school.

Word spread among teachers and parents and soon Polisar was playing regularly at schools and used the earnings to pay for his last two years of college.

He released his first album in 1975 and graduated in December 1977, when he started to play music full time. He still was intending to attend graduate school for teaching, but instead became engrossed in his music career.

“I woke up one day and said, ‘Gosh, I have been doing this for five years now,’” Polisar said. “I was teaching but I was doing it in a different way.”

Polisar soon was travelling the East Coast to perform and then across the country.

In 1985, Polisar also started publishing children’s books with titles such as “Dinosaurs I Have Known” and “Insect Soup.”

Polisar now lives on a sprawling property in Burtonsville that he turned from a junkyard into a gem, complete with gazebo and barn.

As far as retiring, Polisar said he’s thinking about slowing down, but not stopping.

“I’m having too much of a good time,” Polisar said.

ktousignant@gazette.net