Dan Zanes and Friends

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Dan Zanes and Friends
Cover, Catch That Train!
Background information
Origin	New York, New York, USA
Genre(s)	Children's music
Years active	1999-Present
Label(s)	Festival Five Records
Website	DanZanes.com
Members
Dan Zanes Elena Moon Park Barbara Brousal Colin Brooks Saskia Sunshine Lane John Foti Rankin' Don aka Father Goose
Former members
Cynthia Hopkins

Dan Zanes and Friends is a popular children's music band with front man Dan Zanes.

[edit] History

When Dan Zanes and his wife had a baby, they moved to New York City. Zanes subsequently began playing music with a group of fathers that he had met in West Village playgrounds who were also there with their kids. These fathers playing music together eventually became The Wonderland String Band, which played at parks and parties and on a tape of songs that Zanes recorded at his home.

The tape was a hit locally--i.e. on the playgrounds where he and his daughter played--and Zanes realized that he liked making music that families could enjoy together, as opposed to music that is just for children or just for adults. So, he added a small number of women to his band ("I realized I was ignoring half my audience, he recalls"), renamed it the Rocket Ship Revue, and began making a full-length homemade album, enlisting the help of some people he had met when he was a Del Fuego--Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, and Simon Kirke, the drummer for Bad Company.

The album, Rocket Ship Beach, was also a hit. The New York Times Magazine called it "cool", and added, "Mostly, though, Zanes kids music works because it is not kids music; it's just music—-music that's unsanitized, unpasteurized, that's organic even." The second album, Family Dance (2001) is composed of dance songs from a wide variety of musical traditions and features Loudon Wainwright III and Roseanne Cash. The third recording, Night Time! (2002) is a little bit more mellow, maybe not bedtime music but at the very least dinner music; on it, Zanes collaborated with Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, John Doe, Dar Williams, and other established musicians.

The most recent album in the family series is House Party (2003), a rambunctious 20-song collection with a diverse instrumentation that, in addition to the usual guitars, banjos, upright bass and drums, includes such wild instruments as tuba, accordion, pump organ, djembe and saw. House Party was nominated for a Grammy in the Musical Album for Children category. Music video selections from the House Party album play during the Disney Channel's morning program suite known as Playhouse Disney.

[edit] Partial Discography

Rocket Ship Beach (released 2000) Special guests: Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, G.E. Smith, Simon Kirke
Family Dance (released 2001) Special guests: Sandra Bernhard, Rosanne Cash, The Rubi Theater Group, Loudon Wainwright III
Night Time! (released 2002) Special guests: Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, The Rubi Theater Group, Dar Williams
House Party (released 2003) Special guests: Bob Weir, Angelique Kidjo, Deborah Harry, Philip Glass
Sea Music (released 2004)
Parades and Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg for the American Songbag (released 2004)
Catch That Train (released in 2006) Special guests: Natalie Merchant, Kronos Quartet