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Reviews: Uncle Rock ~ Here We Go!
Posted on Saturday, February 05, 2005 @ 13:16:44 PST
Topic: Reviews
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Artist: Uncle Rock
CD: Here We Go!
Home: Chichester, New York
Style: Childrens' Music
Quote: "Each song contains a positive, fun, or just plain silly message for kids without the smarminess found in most children-targeted television."
By Jennifer Layton
I am sending this CD to my sister. Not because I want it out of my house, but because she's got three kids, and I think they could use a break from the Disney Princess, the Wiggles, and Thomas the Train approaches to children. They need Uncle Rock, a blues/country acoustic singer/songwriter who opens his CD with "Too Many Presents," a funny song about the very same breakdown my three-year-old nephew had at Christmas:
I'm gonna have a meltdown
I don't know why I'm cryin'
'Cause everybody's buyin'
Every little thing that I thought that I wanted ...
The tempo is hyper and jumpy, much like my nephew. In song after song about boo-boos, chocolate, superheroes, and the joy of just hanging around doing nothing, Uncle Rock knows kids. He sings their language. And what's so great about this completely DIY project is that you can hear the kids singing back. They're not coached or rehearsed, at at times they are so enthusiastic in their shrieking of the chorus that Uncle Rock can't help breaking down into laughter here and there. Silliness is even more fun when it's this spontaneous.
A little background: Uncle Rock is Robert Burke Warren, whose other indie releases have already made him a familiar face on this website. He released his debut, ... to this day, shortly after the birth of his son, Jack. When Jack started going to school, Warren went with him, taking a job as a teaching assistant at the rural School of the New Moon outside Woodstock, NY. Now he's recording songs he wrote for the kids, and Jack is now a seasoned recording professional, singing and shouting along with his dad on several of these songs.
Each song contains a positive, fun, or just plain silly message for kids without the smarminess found in most children-targeted television. At times, Uncle Rock seems to have tapped into his own inner kid, like when he roars out the bluesy "Predator Dinosaur" in a way any little boy can relate to. "I am a T-Rex! I'm big and bad and mean!" It's the "Stairway to Heaven" for little boys. He also offers a crazed blues ode to a mermaid. Quoting the lyrics wouldn't do the song justice without the insane vocal delivery that probably keeps his audiences giggling nonstop.
And of course, any adult will get a kick out of these songs, especially "Chocolate Everything." Waking up in a chocolate bed, wearing chocolate shoes, learning chocolate rules ... it all just serves to remind me that I have a 3 Musketeers Bar in the fridge with my name on it. We also get "Me Gusta Mucho," which is a great song, but after hearing "Me gusta french fries, me gusta pickles, me gusta peanut butter and jelly," me is starting to gusta the Pepto Bismol.
Here We Go! is currently available in a limited supply, but maybe if you say Pretty Please with sugar and maple syrup on top, Uncle Rock will scrounge up a copy to sell you. You'll find it well worth the effort. And your kids will have a new musicial hero.
http://www.unclerock.com
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| Article Rating | Average Score: 5
Votes: 3
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