DAN ZANES

Here are two things you should know right away about Dan Zanes, two things that set him apart from the huge and festive field of people who have in the past few years begun making music for families and people of all ages in a way that is, frankly, changing the face of America, or the sound of it, at least. First, he is making homemade family music and encouraging similar behaviors in friends and neighbors. Second, he is the guy who is always interested in singing along with people who live near him in Brooklyn, New York, where, even if you don't try, you end up running into people on the streets and stoops who have musical connections to pretty much everywhere in the world. Which brings us to his mission, if you can call it a mission, a mission that might be described like this: Dan is introducing his musical friends to his neighborhood friends and then showing everybody not just that they, yes, can play together but that they can also feel pretty good while doing so. In this sense, Dan is a Twenty-first Century version of the guy who used to conduct the town band from the gazebo, though in lieu of a gazebo he's playing places like Carnegie Hall and The Melbourne International Arts Festival, where no matter how you say it good music is good. He is a ringmaster, bringing new songs into the world and reconnecting people to songs that have always been there, and still are- it's just that people forgot about them.

For the record, Dan Zanes was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1961, and spent time being a kid, first, in Texas and then in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he can still remember enjoying ice hocky and Gordon Lightfoot. He ended up living on the edge of Concord, New Hampshire, where there were ponds and fields, and where today his mom, a photographer, still runs a soup kitchen.

He picked up a guitar when he was eight and began taking Leadbelly records out of the public library as soon as he was old enough to get a library card. But it was not until one night in junior high school while babysitting at a house that had some old Chuck Berry records that he fell in love with rock and roll. In 1981, Dan went off to Oberlin College in Ohio, where his number one goal was to start a really coll band. In the breakfast line on the very first day at Oberlin, he met Tom Lloyd. Zanes and Lloyd took their breakfast back to the dorm and right then and there started a band and soon left school and headed to Boston ("It was between Boston and Austin," according to Zanes), where they became known as the Del Fuegos. The Del Fuegos played in lofts, bars, small art galleries, clubs, barns, college dining halls, fraternity houses, gymnasiums, auditoriums, and, finally, big theaters. Rolling Stone named the Del Fuegos "Best New Band" in 1984. Once, Bruce Springsteen jumped on stage to play "Hang on Sloopy" with them. As a Del Fuego, Zanes made four records and had a hit single, "Don't Run Wild." In 1987, Zanes married Paula Greif, the director of the video for the Del Fuegos song, "I Still Want You."

In 1991, after the Del Fuegos had broken up ("spontaneous combustion"), Zanes and his wife moved to Cornwallville, NY in the Catskills. There, Zanes grew chard, chopped firewood, and listened to a lot of gospel groups from the forties and fifties, including Dorothy Love Coates, The Swan Silvertones and The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. In 1994 he made a solo album called Cool Down Time. When he and his wife, Paula, had a baby, they moved back to New York City. Dan subsequently began playing music with a bunch of fathers that he had run into on West Village playgrounds while they were all playing with and/or standing around and watching their kids. The fathers playing music together eventually became The Wonderland String Band, which played at parks and parties and on a tape of songs that Zanes started to record at 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 kids or just for adults. So he began making a full-fledged homemade CD, enlisting the help of some people he'd met when he was a Del Fuego- Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, and Simon Kirke, the drummer for Bad Company, for instance. The CD, Rocket Ship Beach, was also a hit. The New York Times Magazine wrote a feature story which said, among other things, "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), was comprised of songs that it is difficult not to dance to, selected from a wide variety of musical traditions, and it features Loudon Wainwright III and Roseanne Cash and a lot of dancing that you can't actually see but you can imagine. It was the CD with which- there's really no other way to put it- Dan found his family music-making groove. The third recording in the Festival Five family series is called Night Time! (2002), though it is not technically music that anyone could fall asleep to. On it Dan collaborated with Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, John Doe, Dar Williams, and others, many of them staying up well past their respective bedtime. Next came House Party (2003), a rambunctious twenty-song collection that brings together pump organ, djembe, and saw, with bass, drums and guitar-a CD that says it's OK to make a lot of music with your friends in your home, or anywhere, come to think of it. Dan extended music invitations to Deborah Harry, Angelique Kidjo, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weird, English folksinger David Jones, and Philip Glass, as well as the Rubi Theater Company and Rankin Don (aka Father Goose), and, wouldn't you know, everybody showed up.

House Party was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Musical Album for Children category, but that didn't stop Dan from having even more house parties, which at some point became marine-themed house parties, which at some point meant that Dan ended up with a collection of maritime songs for the first CD in the Festival Five Folk Series, Sea Music. Sure, Dan was a little nervous singing songs that covered topics such as drinking, drowning, homesickness, and love that was courtly and no so courtly, especially given that he has been responsible for huge breakouts of parent-child music selection agreement. But in the end he decided that they don't call it folk music for nothing, and, sure enough, Rolling Stone's Hot Issue cited Sea Music under the category "Hot Maritime Sounds." Families everywhere breathed a sigh of relief and set sail.

The next in the Festival Five Folk Series-Parades and Panaoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg for The American Songbag- came out of a long trip, for lack of a better word, that Dan took into the songbook that Carl Sandburg assembled in 1927. These are songs from the time when people sang, as in most people, and Dan's scruffy troupe of regular singers and musicians dragged them kicking and screaming into the 21st century- with acoustic arrangements, with traditional instruments, with tuba-driven electric guitars. It's folk music for the unfolked, traditional music for rock 'n rollers, and, yes, it's music appropriate for all ages, though adults and teenagers may not want to share.

If you have ever asked yourself whether homemade music can make it in the world of television and DVDs, or whether music that encourages people to talk to each other rather than shut each other out can be as invigorating on stage as it is on the electromagnetic screen, the answer is, yes, and the Dan Zanes and Friends 2005 concert video and DVD entitled "All Around the Kitchen!" proves it. If you have ever wondered whether a guy who considers jug band music to be a major inspiration can actually sit down and write a book, then "Jump Up!" and "Hello Hello," the picture book collaborations from Dan and artist Donald Saaf (Little, Brown and Company Books), are something you'll want to check out. If you have ever asked what could possibly come next out of the Festival Five factory, packed as it is with vintage clothing and all the instruments Dan keeps buying at stoop sales, the answer is Catch That Train!, which you may have seen at Starbucks around the nation (since it was co-released by Starbucks), or you may have heard it in your own CD player, in which case you already know it as the one CD in America that brings together the Kronos Quartet, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Father Goose, Dan's mother-in-law, and the children of the Agape Orphanage in South Africa to sing Zulu folk songs, an old labor organizing tune, a song about the joys of farming, and a few train songs, of course, all in an instrumental mix that highlights cuatros, mandolins, pedal steels, and does not in any way discourage the use of trombone. As usual, it's all in one illustrated, book-length, lyrics-and-chord-filled package.

And, lastly, if you have ever wondered what it is Dan pops into his CD player late at night-after the neighbors have finally gone home, after the instruments have been put away, after his wife and daughter have given up and gone to bed- the answer to that question can be summed up in one word: Mexico, or Argentina, or Puerto Rico, anything Latin really. And it is at this point that Dan pulls out his Spanish dictionary and puts on some salsa or meringue or norteño and gets to work dreaming of food and music and, of course, a lot of people singing.

COLIN BROOKS (drums) started out playing piano at the age of 5. By age 7 he was jamming with his father, a self-taught electric guitar player, on the drums. By the age of 14, he was drumming in a punk rock band with some friends in Little Rock, Arkansas called the NUMBSKULZ. After playing around the United States with the NUMBSKULZ and several other Little Rock based bands (Substance, 2 Minutes Hate, ho-hum, and The Big Cats), he headed for New York City to join Skeleton Key. After that band toured Europe with PRIMUS, Colin was offered the drum seat with New Zealand singer Bic Runga, who he toured Australia and New Zealand with. Upon returning to New York he began playing with local singers Serena Jost and Dana Fuchs, while drumming on jingles, and playing in the off-Broadway musical Betty Rules. He also joined a Brooklyn-based band called Sea Ray. Sea Ray toured the US and Canada extensively and played many New York area shows. The group disbanded in January 2005. Colin next went to Montreal to record with The Stills. His drumming can currently be heard on their latest album Without Feathers. He has most recently finished an album with his long-time band in Little Rock, The Big Cats. For on-line information go to maxrecordings.com, and searaymusic.com

SONIA DE LOS SANTOS (guitar, mandolin, vocals) was born in Monterrey, Mexico. She has received lyrics and interpretation awards for her compositions on Dos Niñas Mas at the National Festival de la Cancion of the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. As an actress, Sonia has toured nationally in Mexico with Jesus Christ Superstar. Ms. De los Santos and has played "Hodl" in Fiddler On The Roof, "Lucy Harris" in Jekyll & Hyde and "Connie" in A Chorus Line. She was the lead singer in Revolution at the Joyce Theater (NYC) in 2007. During her time as lead singer of the rock band Esphera, Sonia took on the role of composer for their debut album Reflection (2001). In 2002, Sonia joined Shot, a pop group out of her home town. Sonia is an alum of Circle in the Square Theater School (NYC) holds a BA in Communications and Mass Media from the Instituto Tecnologico Y De Estudios Superiores De Monterrey.

JOHN FOTI (accordion) was born in West Caldwell, NJ. His first musical experience was figuring out the Sesame Street theme song at a young age. Inspired by his father and older sister, John Foti went on to take piano lessons through college-even when some kids said it "wasn't cool" to play piano. John thought it was cool and kept playing. Speaking of cool, John is thrilled to be part of Dan Zanes and Friends- playing perhaps the coolest instrument this side of the Mississippi- the accordion! Hobbies include thinking, writing music and poetry, sleeping, worrying about what the Yankees score is, running, and watching Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. You can say hello to John at www.myspace.com/johnfoti

SASKIA LANE (bass) was born and raised in San Francisco. Saskia picked up her first stringed instrument at the age of four: the violin. Quickly realizing that the fiddle was far too small for such a big personality, Miss Lane switched to the stand-up bass the day she turned eleven. Though she could not yet lift it without help, she embarked on an intensive course of study and has been at it ever since. In 1997, she jumped the train to New York City where she earned her Masters Degree in Double Bass Performance from The Julliard School. The Manhattan-based musician performs throughout the tri-state area with a variety of jazz, pop, and classical artists. Saskia has also been active in education and outreach, working as a teaching artist for the 92nd Street Y, and performing in the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. Saskia's television credits include a national commercial for Chili's Restaurants and appearances on The Discovery Channel, The Food Network, Fuse TV, and CBS Evening News, and can be seen in the movie Mona Lisa Smiles, featuring Julia Roberts. Her discography includes recordings with Nicole Paiement, featuring the work of Lou Harrison (New Albion Records), The Gothem Ensemble (Albany Records), along with three albums and a concert DVD (Eastway Records) with her critically-acclaimed cocktail pop quartet The Lascivious Biddies.

ELENA MOON PARK (violin) hails from Oak Ridge, TN. She began playing the violin and dancing at a young age. She played classical music for many years, until college drew her attention to traveling to far off places, going on long hiking trips, learning music and dance from other countries, and studying American history. After her adventures, she was anxious to play the violin again and make fun, spontaneous music with many different musicians. Elena lived in the hills of Tennessee and the flatlands of Chicago before proudly calling Brooklyn, NY her home. Her interests include dancing, singing, playing the ukelele, helping to achieve equitable development in urban America, supporting the arts, and Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." She is very excited to be playing with Dan Zanes and Friends.