Dressed in a mango-orange Hawaiian button down patterned with flowers and ukuleles, "Uncle Roy" Shultz sang about life, love and leisure with his saxophone-playing son, Jonas, at the Gnu's Room Friday night.
"I'm trying to start playing places where the crowd listens more," Schultz said. "I've been playing the bars since I was a teenager. I'm trying to get out of that venue, especially because I am a songwriter trying to get my songs heard."
The Uncle Roy Show mixes roots of rock 'n' roll, hardcore honky tonk, soul country, rhythm and blues, the samba and bossa nova of Brazil and ethnic folkloric styles of Mexico, the Caribbean and Hawaii, Shultz said.
"Every genre has good music, and my music comes from the roots of '50s kinds of music," Schultz said. "Rather than looking at Led Zeppelin, I was looking at where Led Zeppelin got their ideas."
Shultz said his third album, which he has not yet titled, will be released this summer.
The CD has 12 tracks with country jazz, rock 'n' roll, boogie, ethnic, Latin, hillbilly, reggae, folk funk, a hard country tune, a Cajun song about Kansas, some uplifting things, a drinking thing and a couple of love songs, according to The Uncle Roy Show website.
"It's a mixture of everything--stuff I've been involved with since I was a kid," Shultz said.
Before his teenage years, Shultz said he used to travel across the country with his father, a truck driver.
"Maybe the rhythm of the road (inspired my music career)," Shultz said. "There was no radio (in the truck.) The truck was so loud, and you could hear all sorts of rhythms in that diesel engine."
After moving to California at age 14, Shultz said he began playing the drums in bands along the West Coast and even Hawaii. He taught himself to play multiple instruments, starting with the drums and progressing to the guitar, mandolin, harmonica and others.
"I never took any (music) lessons because there was no one to teach us," Schultz said. "There was no Berklee School of Music then."
Many years later, Schultz's son, Jonas, attended Berklee in Boston, Mass., to study contemporary music.
"I studied all kinds of music stuff - education, engineering, film scoring and some business classes - to become more well-rounded," Jonas said.
Then, Jonas moved back to Auburn to take music history and history of ancient civilizations classes at the University during the summer.
Jonas said he began playing the saxophone at age 11 and has continued to play with his dad.
"I learned a lot of what I know from playing gigs and trying to meet club owners and other people who will help us out," Jonas said.
Jonas also formed a local band called The Good Doctor a little more than a year ago. In fact, he left the Gnu's Room to perform with his band at Bourbon Street Friday night.
After Schultz and his son spent time in California and Texas, love brought them to Auburn in 1996, when his soon-to-be second wife, Mary Rudisill, became the department head and a professor of kinesiology at Auburn University.
"We met in Texas (in 1992), and she got a job offer here," Schultz said. "Then, we got married at the courthouse in Opelika."
Sitting in a wooden chair among the small gathering of Uncle Roy listeners, Rudisill smiled as she listened to her husband and stepson play songs inspired by life experiences.
Schultz wrote "The Anniversary Song" for their third anniversary and "Another Mother's Birthday" for Rudisill's birthday, which usually falls on or around Mother's Day each spring.
"Tonight, he only played the sweet (songs) that he has written about me," Rudisill said.
Rudisill said her art form is athletics and movement, but that she thinks her husband's ability to play multiple instruments at once is amazing. She also recognizes the disparity in hers and Schultz's lifestyles.
"My life is very structured," Rudisill said. "I have a tenured job, but he and my stepson have to try to find work every week. Their world is different than mine."
Schultz is planning another Uncle Roy Show the Gnu's Room May 1 and will perform at the Art Walk & Wine Festival in Apalachicola, Fla., Sat., May 8.
But Schultz will always be honest Uncle Roy, and he said he will continue playing music for anyone willing to listen.
"When I first moved here about 13 years ago, I realized I wasn't going to fool anybody into thinking I was younger than I was. I didn't get a tattoo or wear a pony tail or get an earring," Schultz said. "You see, in Hawaii, when you're a friend of the family, 'uncle' and 'aunt' are honorary titles. When I was there, I was 'Uncle Roy.'"
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