Dan Zanes Tickets

Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes is currently the front man of the Grammy winning group Dan Zanes and Friends. Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1961, Dan Zanes spent his childhood in Texas and then in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

He started playing guitar when he was 8. In 1981, Zanes went to Oberlin College in Ohio, where he was determined to form a band. He met Tom Lloyd and the duo immediately started a band. After relocated to Boston, they named their group the The Del Fuegos.

The Del Fuegos played in lofts, bars, small art galleries, clubs, and finally, big theaters. Del Fuegos were named the ?Best New Band? by Rolling Stone in 1984.

With the Del Fuegos, Zanes made several records and released the Longest Day released in 1984, Mass in 1985, Stand Up in 1987, Smoking in the Fields in 1989 and had a hit single, Don?t Run Wild.

Zanes moved to New York and began playing music with a group of other fathers that he had met in West Village playgrounds. These fathers playing music together eventually became The Wonderland String Band. The band would play at parks and parties.

Zanes recorded a tape of songs at his home which turned out to be a hit locally. Having issued the tape, Zanes realized that he liked making music that families could enjoy together. He added a small number of women to his band, renaming it the Rocket Ship Revue.

Dan around this time had started 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. Zanes released an album, entitled Rocket Ship Beach in 2000.

With guest appearances of Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega, the album received positive reviews and well-liked among masses. He issued his second album, Family Dance in 2001.

The release was composed of dance songs from a wide variety of musical traditions while featuring Loudon Wainwright III and Roseanne Cash.

Night Time was released in 2002, also featuring Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, John Doe, Dar Williams, and other established musicians. Zanes?s fourth album was House Party, issued in 2003. The fourth album of the family series was a rambunctious 20-song collection with a diverse instrumentation.

In addition to the usual guitars, banjos, upright bass and drums, he also used tuba, accordion, pump organ, djembe and saw. House Party was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, Zanes received the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children for Catch That Train!.

Dan Zanes is a public supporter of several charities, earlier donated some of the proceeds from Family Dance and Night Time to the non-profit world hunger organization Heifer International.

He also produced a children?s Reggae CD with Father Goose called ?Its a Bam Bam Diddly?. The CD also featured songs performed by Sister Carol and Sheryl Crow.

There are two things set Dan Zanes apart from the huge and festive field of people who have begun making music for families/ people of all ages.

First, he is making homemade family music and encouraging similar behaviors in people around him. Second, he is the man who is always interested in singing along with people.

Dan is often regarded as a Twenty-first Century version of the guy who in the old days used conducting the town band from the gazebo. He is a ringmaster who has an itch for introducing new songs and reconnecting people to songs that have always been there.