new york magazine
01/29/2001

zanesville, brooklyn
by chris smith

Like frustrated hipster-boomer dads everywhere, Dan Zanes couldn't stomach the Barney-and Disney children's-music colossus. "Since we've had our daughter, I've been really surprised how hard it is to find toned-down versions of rock songs, or hyped up folk," he says. But Zanes, 39, isn't your
typical CD shopper: He's the founder of the Del Fuegos, and a while back he was subletting some work space to Sheryl Crow. So he began recording a tape to and out to friends with kids in his Cobble Hill neighborhood-and, one day, wandered over to ask Crow if she'd help him out on "Polly Wolly Doodle." Three years later, the tape is a seventeen track CD, Rocket Ship Beach, but the music has never lost the homespun, charmingly ragtag feel of Crow's duet with Zanes. "She brought in her dog, and I don't think she even took off her coat," Zanes says. "And when the song seemed too short, we made up two verses on the spot." Suzanne Vega also appears, but this is one kids' album that isn't about slick star turns. There's a real warmth in Americana like "Goodbye Old Paint" and original concoctions like the infectious "Father Goose"-the nursery-rhyme medley bouncing between the gruff grumbles of Rankin' Don and the sweet chirps of the Rocket Ship Singers, a chorus that includes 6-year-old Anna Zanes. "We wanted the album to sound like people making music in their living room," Zanes says. "So somebody listening at home might think, 'Hey! We've got a living room..." Maybe we can start a family band movement."

The album in available at www.festivalfive.com, or at the dance-party shows where Zanes and friends are performing next month. "Even with everything we're doing to share good music with our kids," Zanes says with a laugh, "I realize that no matter what, Anna's going to be into the 2007 equivalent of the Backstreet Boys".