Robert Burke Warren

Robert Burke Warren (born March 29, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, professional child-wrangler, and alter-ego of Uncle Rock 1. He is the youngest child of Dr. Mary Lucchese of Rome, GA.

Early Life

Robert was born in Quantico, Virginia, and raised in Atlanta, Georgia by his mother, physician Mary C. Lucchese, with strong influences by his grandmother Genevieve Lucchese. He has an elder brother, Britt Warren. Robert attended Montessori, public, and Catholic schools as a child, eventually studying acting and music at Northside School of Performing Arts (now North Atlanta High School.).

Music Career

1980-1988: From Garage Bands to European Touring

After leaving his first garage band in 1983, Robert played bass with a then unknown RuPaul in a band called Wee Wee Pole. At the band's first gig, an unknown teenage comic named David Cross opened the show. Robert spent 1984 based in Athens, Georgia playing and touring with Vic Varney's band Go Van Go (Varney was best known as leader of The Method Actors). In 1985 he moved to Manhattan where he would live for 17 years. Here he met The Fleshtones, becoming a globe-trotting bassist for two years, touring the United States and Europe. He recalled his time with the band in an interview entitled "Adventures in the MusicAL Glue Factory."2 Citing personal differences and a desire to write and sing his own songs, he quit The Fleshtones in 1988.

1993-1995: Buddy and songwriting

After a few years spent as a singer-songwriter-bandleader and sometime actor, Robert was cast as Buddy Holly in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. He performed on both the UK Tour and at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London's West End. He wrote AbOUT his experience for Texas Music magazine in an article entitled "My Buddy." 3 In 1995, Robert's wife Holly sent one of his old demos to Rosanne Cash for consideration in a songwriting workshop at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. He was accepted. Subsequently, Robert would co-write with Cash and her husband/producer John Leventhal; their song "44 Stories" would appear on her Grammy-nominated CD "Rules of Travel."

1996-1998: Release of ...to this day

Following his return to the states Robert began giving serious consideration to producing his own CD. His debut album, ... to this day 4 was released in 1999 on his own label Jackpot Music, named for his newborn son Jack. It garnered much acclaim, including a spotlight in Billboard Magazine and "CD of the Week" on the nationally syndicated NPR program World Cafe. While promoting ...to this day, Robert met rockabilly legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Wanda Jackson. This relationship let to Robert putting together a NYC backup band for the legend - the New York Partytimers - and the recording of a live album together entitled Live and Still Kickin'5. Subsequently, Robert would write a song for Jackson about her relationship with Elvis Presley; "I Wore Elvis' Ring" would appear on Jackson's "I Remember Elvis" CD. 6

2001-2004: Leaving NYC, Release of Lazyeye

After watching the fall of the Twin Towers from the rooftop of their Manhattan apartment building, the family moved to Phoenicia, New York. For his follow-up to ... to this day, Robert recorded Lazyeye with producer Ralph Legnini in his E Boy Music Studio in West Shokan, NY. Guests on the album include Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal and B-52 Kate Pierson. The song "Sudden Strangers" would be placed in the hit TV series Felicity.

2004-2010: Uncle Rock 7

It was the birth of his son Jack that led him into an unforeseen musical arena. Following Jack's birth, Robert took a sabbatical from performing to take on stay-at-home fatherhood. When Jack was in pre-school, Robert began assisting at the school. He occasionally brought his guitar with him. Noticing the lack of cross-generational music that both children and adults could enjoy together, he started writing songs with both his pint-sized audience and their parents in mind, releasing homemade CDs locally. When his nephew began calling him Uncle Rock, Robert created a persona around the name. Uncle Rock now tours nationally and receives frequent airplay on both Sirius/XM Satellite radio's Kids Place Live and Pandora. To date, there are five Uncle Rock CDs available, plus a DVD. http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/UncleRock

2002-2010: Writing Upon relocating to upstate New York, Robert began writing for various publications, including Texas Music, Brooklyn Parent, the Woodstock Times, Chronogram http://www.chronogram.com/user/profile/Robert+Burke+Warren and the Da Capo anthology The Show I’ll Never Forget. He blogs at Solitude and Good Company, where much of the aforementioned work has been reprinted. 8 Currently, he is working on the young adult fantasy novel Yelloweye.