A really good record.  We have a radio show called It Takes a Village, on community radio in Vancouver, BC, where we talk about parenting and play kid's music that we can stand to listen to.  This is a great example.  Not stupid and smarmy like sooo much kid's music (who really like this?  Why? My kids like old R&B and rockabilly.)  

Fun stuff, love the unpolished quality, that's so good for kids to hear I think, and so much for natural on the ears.  

End result, can we please have a heading to differentiate "kid's music that doesn't suck?"  And can we please put this in there.
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Here We Go! is an acoustic coup for kids and adults. In an era of dichotomous choices in children's music—between "corporate everything" (buy, buy, buy) and "education everything" (plaster on a fake smile and sing about vegetables)—Uncle Rock jams with kids about everything from the sweet joys of an imaginative world where they are "runnin' through the chocolate halls" ("Chocolate Everything") to the amazing and otherworldly "I've got laser beams comin' out my eyes" ("Superpowers").  

Uncle Rock blends rock, funky folk, and country into Americana for kids, with great picking, synthetic mixes, and real children's voices for full-of-feeling sounds that soothe little (and big) souls. Meltdowns from "Too Many Presents," the need to share boo-boo stories, roaring dinosaurs, things kids like "a lot, a lot, a lot"—it's all there.
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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.
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Of all the CDs in my kids' collection, this is my favorite one. That goes for my kids too. As a category, music for kids can be jarring for adults. I'm glad that Uncle Rock has figured out that goofy noises, pointless repetition and general pandering is not how a CD ends up in the stereo. "Here We Go!" is filled with funny, memorable songs kids can and adults can sing along to. With catchy riffs and good lyrics, Uncle Rock is definitely for a much hipper kids' set. I mean, how many kids' birthday songs declare "I'm gonna have a meltdown, right now." Who hasn't felt that way? That Laurie Berkner song "We Are the Dinosaurs" may be cute, but "Preditor Dinosaur" rocks. My kids love to rock, and thanks to their favorite Uncle, they can.
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