To longtime Ween fans, it might seem strange for co-frontman Gene Ween, a veteran rock musician, to tour the country under a different name, performing soft-pop tunes. But Ween, born Aaron Freeman, doesn’t seem bothered by the reactions to his sudden musical detour.

Earlier this year, he retired his stage name and embraced a new set of music based on the repertoire of beat poet and folk-pop songwriter Rod McKuen. With Marvelous Clouds, his 13-song collection of McKuen renditions, out this past May on the Partisan label, Freeman considers it part of a natural progression.

“When I listen to Marvelous Clouds, I don’t feel like it’s that much of a departure from some of the stuff I did with Ween,” Freeman says. “There are ways that I sing and layer my vocals on this that are very similar to what I’ve done in certain [Ween] songs.”

Odd reworkings are nothing new in popular music: Duke Ellington added swing to a Tchaikovsky ballet in the '60s, David Lee Roth gooned up two Louis Prima classics in the ’80s, and Johnny Cash remade a Nine Inch Nails song in the '00s. But Freeman’s unusual project might still stand out as a bold move years from now.

“I know it’s pretty bare-bones, and people react to that,” he says. “I try not to pay much attention to what the critics have to say, but I personally love throwing this stuff at my fans. It’s like making them take a little bit of medicine.”

During the brainstorming and recording sessions for Marvelous Clouds, Freeman collaborated with studio engineer and producer Ben Vaughn. The two had previously worked together on Ween’s classic 12 Golden Country Greats, and Freeman trusted Vaughn’s judgment. In fact, the idea of covering obscure ballads and sentimental pop songs by an once-popular flower-power poet came about after Vaughn sparked Freeman’s fascination last year.

“I was looking to do some sort of solo record, something outside of Ween, and this presented itself through Ben,” Freeman says. “He told me the story of Rod McKuen, who I hadn’t heard of before. I wound up listening to McKuen’s music, getting into his writing, and really enjoying it. It clicked musically with me. So, this was the perfect way to do a solo record without really making a solo record. It was making a record where I could be a performer, as opposed to being a singer-songwriter.”

It’s a drastic change for Freeman, who spent nearly 25 years writing and recording a variety of weird rock, funk and punkish-pop songs with Ween bandmate Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo).

“As long as you love the music you’re covering, it all works out in the end,” Freeman says. “People can see that you really appreciate it. Ultimately, you want to create a sense of honesty and vulnerability with music, and I think we accomplished that with this one.”

Marvelous Clouds is a strange trip. Songs jump from style to style, and the mood goes up and down. The album kicks off with the effervescent pop song “As I Love My Own,” but things quickly mellow out with the acoustic ballad "Jean" and the jazzy, waltzy title track. “A Man Alone” shuffles casually to a brushy drum beat. The banjo-driven “One by One” could easily work as a singalong on "Sesame Street."

One of McKuen’s best known tunes, the melancholic “Doesn’t Anybody Know My Name,” sounds strangely cheerful here. The harmony-laden “Love’s Been Good to Me” resembles some of the most sugary Mellow Gold of yore. Album closer “The World I Used to Know” bounces more happily than the lonesome-sounding original.

“I did contribute, writing-wise, in a very strange way,” Freeman says. “When we first started working on it, I rerecorded some of it without really knowing all of the chords and arrangements, so I dumbed it down a bit. It made it more within my way of thinking. There’s no need to duplicate the original recordings because, as far as I’m concerned, they’re perfect the way they are. So, I definitely wanted to put my mark on it and have it be true and genuine.

“It’s a fine line between making it a little bit different and really changing it up,” he adds. “Some people take things too far when they do this, and they put too much of their own flavor into a song.”

Freeman will tour this summer, backed by scaled-down combos. At the Athens concert, he’ll handle guitars, with backing from two Ween bandmates, bassist Dave Dreiwitz and keyboardist Mitch Marcus.

“It’s not going to be the full Marvelous Clouds thing,” Freeman says. “It’ll be something more sparse. We’ll do four or five songs from the new album, plus a big mixture of old Ween songs and a whole bunch of other stuff. I look forward to picking up my old guitar and taking people through an evening.”

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Aaron Freeman's show at The Melting Point on Friday, July 13 has been canceled. There will be no rescheduled date. Seek ticket refunds at your point of purchase.]