Dan Zanes is living his dream. He sings and plays music with his family, with friends in his Brooklyn, N.Y.
, neighborhood, and in living rooms and concert halls everywhere with his records and live shows. His latest record, Catch That Train, won a Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children during the award ceremony on Feb 11, and his music is featured on the Disney Channel and can be heard in Starbucks nationwide. But referring to the songs he and his band perform as solely kids' music isn't quite accurate.
You won't find rhymes about teeth brushing, veggie eating or learning the alphabet. Instead, the tunes harken back to early folk music and the notion of families and friends gathering around to socialize, sing, dance and be merry, albeit with a modern and hip feel. Dan Zanes and Friends perform at 1 and 4 p.
m. Sunday at the Gordon Theater in Camden. Q: What was your inspiration for creating music with more of a family sound?
A: The thing that was always interesting for me was the idea of all-ages music. When my daughter was born, I had this vision of the two of us listening to music together, and both being excited about it and having some emotional connection to it. I'm really making the music I wanted when she was born.
I don't think we're doing anything new, but I think we're updating some traditional approaches. I grew up listening to Folkways records, a lot of Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Ella Jenkins. It sounded like people getting together and having a great time.
It was connected to some sort of a culture, and it was fun. Q: How did the idea of performing with a band begin to take shape? A: I was making grown-up music at the time my daughter was born; songs about old girlfriends and drinking and that sort of thing.
I made a cassette tape to give out to kids in the neighborhood as a holiday gift and it was the sound I had heard in my head. People were a whole lot more excited about that cassette than they were by my grown-up record. And I had more fun doing it; I felt like a useful member of society.
People started inviting me to parties and telling me to bring my banjo or guitar if I wanted to sing some tunes. Before I knew it, there was just a whole lot more singing in my life than there ever had been. Q: All of your records have a house party feel to them.
How do you get that sound to come across on tape? A: It's all done in my house. I'm fortunate enough to live in a brownstone here in Brooklyn, and I've got my tape machine in the basement and we do most of it down there.
My wife let me cut a hole in the pantry floor and I can run the mic cables up into the kitchen, or up one more floor to the living room. The living room's turned out to be the greatest place to record, which is good because it would've been a real challenge to bring the Five Blind Boys of Alabama down into my basement. It's a trecherous stairway just to begin with.
This way we're connected to the kitchen, and you gotta have food when you're making music, and it makes it all feel more social. Q: I noticed a few new faces on your new record, Catch That Train. How's the new lineup going?
A. It's been great. It's been a really exciting year.
There's been a number of people who've passed through along the way, and we're always excited when people are with us and then excited to watch where people go from here. Our bass player, Yoshi Waki, moved here (New York) to be a jazz player, and we were so happy to have him for three years, but now he's playing jazz every night of the week. Barbara Brousal had a baby, so she's been with her baby.
She's gonna start playing some shows this spring. Charlie Faye has been playing guitar and mandolin with us and that's been working out really well. And we have a guy from New Jersey playing accordion with us now.
It's the first time we've had anyone from New Jersey in the band. Colin Brooks is still with us on drums and Father Goose is still doing his thing. There's some familiar faces and some exciting new faces.
It all feels like one big extended family. Q: What was it like working with Starbucks on the release of the new record? A: For this last CD, we did it as a joint venture with Starbucks and it's been a great experience.
We've sold more CDs and they're a great company to work with. I think the world is constantly changing in terms of how and where we're able to sell our records, and they've been careful about what they've chosen. People tend to trust when they see things on the counter that there's nothing random about it.
It felt like a good match for us, and I think it worked out well for them. We all have the same interest, which is families as opposed to just children. We saw eye-to-eye on where this music should end up.
Q: You've worked with a litany of guests including Nick Cave, Angelique Kidjo, Bob Weir, Aimee Mann, Natalie Merchant, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama and Philip Glass. Do you have a wish list of artists you would like to collaborate with in the future? A: Yeah, definitely.
Harry Belafonte, Queen Latifah, Julietta Venegas, the Mexican pop singer. My list is about 50 people long. Q: Is Tom Waits on the list?
A: Oh yeah, he's on the list. Q: And just so the kids know, what's your favorite snack? A: My favorite snack is organic corn chips.
Usually the yellow ones, but I also like the blue ones, and every now and then I eat the ones with sesame seeds in them.
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