Shel Silverstein penned wacky poems for kids (and their parents), drew cartoons for Playboy readers (and their sneaky children) and wrote at least 100 one-act plays, many of which were produced off-Broadway. He was so prolific, in fact, that when country singer Bobby Bare started rounding up musicians to contribute to a Silverstein tribute album, at least one of his prospects didn’t know that the poet was also an accomplished songwriter.

“A lot of [the younger musicians] knew him more as an author, because of his children’s books. Andrew Bird didn’t even know he wrote songs,” Bare says. “He was a big fan of his poems, so Andrew just put a melody to ‘Twistable, Turnable Man,’ one of Shel’s poems.”

“Twistable, Turnable Man” became the title track of the new record, out Tuesday, produced by Bare and his son, Bobby Jr.

Silverstein, who died in 1999 at 68, wrote hits such as Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue” and Dr. Hook’s “The Cover of the Rolling Stone.” He was so constantly inspired that he’d often write ideas for songs on his hand while walking down the street.

The tribute, featuring artists such as My Morning Jacket, Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Lucinda Williams, highlights Silverstein’s ability to tell a funny and detailed story in song. In Kristofferson’s take on “The Winner,” a bar-fight champion talks down a pretender to his throne by describing how winning has decimated him, including, in one fight, how “I left that person cursin’/Nursin’ seven broken bones/And he only broke three of mine/And that made me the winner.”

While the song consists of 11 lengthy, detailed verses, it still doesn’t hit the five-minute mark. Such was Silverstein’s ability to tell a character- and plot-rich story without wasting a word.

Which is not to say he didn’t sometimes stretch it out.

“I [once] did a song of his called ‘Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe,’” says Bare. “It’s about what takes place in a cafe late at night, at 2 or 3 in the morning. It was a nine-minute song, but he would write verses to it while he was jogging in New York — 10 more verses every day. There’s probably 30 more verses. It could be made into a movie.”