Steve Poltz January 5, 2011

Steve Poltz is not normal.

He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) but has lived most of his life in Southern California and those geographic poles are quite likely responsible for his unhinged genius.

Over the course of his life he’s met Elvis Presley (who hugged his sister for far too long), trick or treated at Liberace’s house (each finger had a diamond ring), was Bob Hope’s favorite altar boy (according to him), bravely traveled the world busking before he knew how to do it, famously co-wrote “You Were Meant For Me” with Jewel, pissed off David Cassidy and can count some of the world’s coolest people as fans.

He’s also an ex high school wrestler (98 pound class), an obsessed baseball fan, a yoga practitioner, a hopeless romantic, a smart-ass philosopher and a child-like adventurer/observer with an absurdist’s view of this crazy world and the life-forms that inhabit it.

As a recording artist, he’s fronted the semi-legendary Rugburns and is responsible for a critically acclaimed body of work on his own (One Left Shoe, Chinese Vacation, Traveling, Unraveling, Tales From The Tavern), along with some stuff that positively defies categorization (Answering Machine, The Barn). Unlike many artists, Steve simply gets better and better the longer he lives; his shows are the stuff of legend – no two are the same – and can take an unsuspecting audience from laughter to tears and back again in the space of the same song. He is quite possibly the most talented, and engaging, solo performer on the planet.

He’s also one of the most prolific. Any live show aficionado can attest to the fact Steve has a ridiculous amount of fantastic, not-yet-recorded material that deserves to be heard.

Brilliant writer + wealth of killer material = what? This is what…

Steve Poltz’s latest recording project brought him back to Halifax where he collaborated with Joel Plaskett, an award-winning Canadian song-writer, performer, producer and eminently kindred spirit. To the point, Joel is Tim Burton to Steve’s Johnny Depp. The two holed up in Joel’s Scotland Yard studio with a 2 inch, 16 track analog tape machine, a 24 hour work ethic, their comfy clothes, some serious mojo and emerged a few weeks later with “Dreamhouse,” Steve’s most accomplished and focused effort to date.

If Dreamhouse becomes a huge hit, it will no doubt make him happy. If it doesn’t, he’ll be happy anyway and the folks who come to see him at any of the 200+ shows he’ll do to bring the album to the world will be happy too. Guaranteed. If the Padres win the World Series and the Chargers win the Super Bowl this year, ironically, Steve will be happy even if the world ends as a result.

Of course, none of that is “normal” – on THIS planet…