By Nichole Dupont He calls himself "Uncle Rock," but musician-songwriter-teacher Robert Burke Warren is soundly rooted in the role of father. This occupation, according to the Georgia native, has brought him full circle from his first band with then front-man RuPaul to penning ballads for Rosanne Cash, back to performing, this time trading up the leather pants and kerosene breath for Crocs and the occasional sippy cup. “I’ve become a better guitar player, and a decent singer now that I’m performing so much," Warren laughs over the phone. He and his family (wife/rock writer Holly George-Warren and son Jack) are on the last leg of the journey home to the Catskills from a vacation in North Carolina. “It’s kind of a surprising endeavor, the Uncle Rock thing. I actually think performing for kids is a lot more fun. The kids dance. They’re really uninhibited. It’s a whole new world of playing music." On Saturday, Uncle Rock will be bringing his unique blend of “acoustically driven songwriter folk" to the Hudson Opera House for fans of all ages to enjoy. (The show starts at 10 a.m. so best to avoid living like a rock star the night before.) Warren is a rock veteran who sounded off his career at an age when most of us were learning to drive and smoke cigarettes. In his late teens, with his band Wee Wee Pole, Warren toured the South as a bassist and swankishly lost soul (and yes, with RuPaul who Warren described was at that time “more of a thrift-store cross-dresser than a drag queen"). A few bands, a stint as the lead in a West End run of The Buddy Holly Story, a songwriting collaboration with Rosanne Cash and eight albums later, Uncle Rock is utilizing all his coolness and talent and hard-earned experience to teach kids about music. “I stayed at home with my son [Jackson] for the first five years of his life. It was so much more than I thought it would be," Warren recalls. “I’m a songwriter, so my life is my raw material. Becoming a parent changed everything for me, my perspective on the world. My son and his peers, I was in that world."
Apparently, it is a world that suits Warren -- himself raised by a single mother -- very much. In 2006, Uncle Rock, a Grammy-nominated “kindie troubadour" who tours the region bringing music and ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll to the doorsteps of Dora-weary parents, was born. Most recently, Warren, along with alt-rock violinist Tracy Bonham, schooled a group of kindergarten kids at the Paul Green Rock Academy in Woodstock, NY. “The rock camp is music appreciation at its best. Many of the kids haven’t spent a lot of time around people who play music," Warren says. “Rock is an organic, sort of primal thing that they can do and everyone can perform in some way. We’ve got go-go dancers, percussionists, some guitarists. Demystifying music is a big part of what I do." Demystifying it for the kids, and actually making music enjoyable for the parents, is a Herculean task in this era of Kidz Bop albums that make most parents want to shove an icepick through their ears. Warren successfully officiates over the marriage of rock n’ roll and (somewhat) wholesome parenting, engaging the latte-craving adults as well as their pint-sized rock stars. “An Uncle Rock gig is the best when parents are engaged with the kids. It’s an old-fashioned timeless situation to have everybody singing these classic tunes," he says. “It’s potent. It’s an ancient kind of method of connection and it’s my favorite thing to do." And to the hard-asses who would turn their noses up at Warren’s decision to consecrate his musical talent and wisdom with the family crowd, he just laughs with the easy knowledge that any musical legend worth his or her salt has to be able to speak to the masses. And that includes moms, dads, grandparents and the future urchins of rock. “My heroes are people who did a lot of things -- Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie -- they covered a lot of children’s material and got everybody involved," Warren says. “And I’m someone, too, who wears a lot of hats." Uncle Rock on Saturday, August 16 @ 10 a.m. Tix: $10/$8 members; $6 kids Hudson Opera House327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 518-822-1438
