* En anglais uniquement
After years of rocking in the 1980s with
the Del Fuegos, singer/songwriter
Dan Zanes created his own band,
the Dan Zanes Trio, in 1994. The group got started when
Zanes was hanging out with producer
Mitchell Froom in Lower Manhattan; after adding drummer
Jerry Marotta, they began playing their sparse blues and folk-rock to small crowds in clubs like the CBGB Gallery. Produced by
Froom, the trio's debut LP, Cool Down Time, a raw rock effort influenced by '60s-era R&B, appeared in 1995. In 2001
Zanes resurfaced with the children's folk-tinged
Rocket Ship Beach, featuring "friends"
Sheryl Crow,
Suzanne Vega, Donald Saaf, Rankin Don, and the Sandy Girls.
Zanes continued his Dan Zanes & Friends children's series in 2002 with the release of
Family Dance and
Night Time.
House Party followed in 2003,
Sea Music and
Parades and Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg arrived in 2004, and
Catch That Train! landed the following year.
Zanes released
Nueva York! in 2008, a collection of songs from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, followed by
76 Trombones, a collection of Broadway tunes, in 2009. In 2011
Zanes and friends released
Little Nut Tree, a family-style mixed-bag set of typically upbeat tunes that came packaged in a children's durable board book.
Zanes teamed up with
Elizabeth Mitchell (formerly of the group
Ida) for another family-friendly acoustic set, 2013's
Turn Turn Turn.
Zanes' next project was 2017's
Lead Belly, Baby!, a set of fresh interpretations of songs by the legendary folk-blues artist
Lead Belly, with guest appearances by
Billy Bragg,
Chuck D,
Valerie June, Ashley Phillips, and many more. ~ Richard Skelly