Interview: Dan Zanes

With Dan Zanes visiting Phoenix for the first time on tour with Dan Zanes and Friends less than two weeks from now, I thought it'd be a good time to catch up with the singer. I've done both these things before (seeing him perform in Tucson in April 2007 and interviewing him back in summer 2006), but nothing ever stands still in Dan Zanes' world these days. So I called him up in Puerto Rico and chatted a bit.

Read on for his views on what makes a good Dan Zanes and Friends concert and what he does the first time he visits a city. (Phoenix-area readers, feel free to chime in with suggestions for what he should do here.) Find out about the upcoming album, ¡Nueva York!

And even if you've never even been to Phoenix, you'll want to read the end of the interview where I find out exactly what he was doing in Puerto Rico and what Paul McCartney has to do with it. Trust me, it's worth the time. (And thanks to Dan for making the time.)

Zooglobble: How would you describe a Dan Zanes and Friends concert?
Dan Zanes: As much like a little Grateful Dead show as possible. I try to make the theatre feel like your living room. There's lots of people singing along, lots of people on stage, and as much roaming around, laughing, and crying as possible. And then the whole dissolves into a whole dance party. I want everybody who comes to feel like we're all in this together.

What's your favorite part of the show?
Two things: first, how much people throw themselves into singing. Are they singing their heads off? Second, what's the level of the dancing? Are the aisles filled? How many people are upfront? How much chaos? How intense does it get?

I can't even remember the last show where people didn't dance. In the world of young people, it's so much how they relate... in a physical way.
Will this be your first time playing Phoenix and Flagstaff?
Yes.

What do you do the first time you visit a city?
Try and find good Mexican food. I look for music stores, I look for thrift shops. See if someone we like is playing in town.

Most of the band likes walking and exploring cities. Elena (Moon Park, fiddle and trumpet) has a graduate degree in urban policy.

How do you choose or find local musicians you have joining you?
Usually we start with the presenters, who tend to be tapped into the community. A lot of times I'll go online, research Latino/Mexican cultural centers or African drumming groups.

Often I'll look for groups working with young people. If kids are seeing other kids on stage, that's really meaningful. I think most of the groups we have are working with traditions that require creativity but also understanding of cultural roots. For me, that's very, very emotional to see. Young people will really keep the traditions going. It's an incredible feeling because there's so much inspiration for where the country's going.

You have a new album coming out soon, right?
Yes, ¡ Nueva York!, in April. We're celebrating the music all around us in New York City from the Spanish-speaking south. It's the sound of the band collaborating with Latino musicians in New York City, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina.

On a personal level, it's my pro-immigration record. What I haven't heard is much acknowledgment of how much the culture of the United States is revitalized by this culture. When I learned Spanish couple years ago... I spent time on the border last year with humanitarian groups, and I saw the whole zone on both sides of the border. I saw more than I imagined and it was heartbreaking. I want to be building bridges instead of the mean tone of conversation. [The album] is the sound of people getting together sharing stories and celebrating each's others culture. Everybody's welcome here -- let's get the party started.

I've heard a couple of the tracks, it seems like maybe it'll be geared for a little older audience. Will this be like Catch That Train or will it be a little more like Sea Music or Parades and Panoramas?
It really is the next family record. For a lot of people it might be hard to hear it that way. But for other people, it might be this fantastic thing that there's this family CD that's all in Spanish. There's not as much out there in terms of family music in Spanish. I think a lot of our existing fans will get on board. It'll be a fun year. We had an amazing time collaborating in New York -- the whhole thing has made me feel happy.

How much of the new album will you be playing at the show?
1 or 2 songs. Definitely at least one.

So what are you doing in Puerto Rico, anyway?
We're working on a new CD, actually. We got this crazy call from Paul McCartney's publishing company. He's got this company, MPL Music Publishing. They've got a fantastic collection -- Frank Loesser, Harold Arlen -- and they decided they wanted to actively work the catalog. The first call they made was to us to see if they wanted to make a family record of Broadway tunes. I said, "Are you sure you want us?" But then I explained what I thought we could do with them.

We love Sir Paul and they're a great group of people. It was going to be an interesting challenge to take these songs and make them sound like wild folk music. And since they're writing the check, we thought maybe we could make a wild adventure. This is my best band yet and I wanted to do something a little different, more of a musical collaboration with the group, where we went somewhere, worked hard for a week. So we're here in Puerto Rico. It's been great -- we've recorded about 18 songs. We'll go back to New York and finish it up.

I don't think I own a single soundtrack except for Fiddler on the Roof. It never connected to me. But these songs are incredible. We take 'em apart and work 'em up...

Thanks to Dan for the time... Phoenix-area readers: C'mon -- now you know what Dan and the band does on tour -- where should they visit in Phoenix?.

Dan Zanes Takes Over Arizona

I try not to get too provincial here at Zooglobble HQ. Physically we're in Arizona, but, hey, I've got readers all over this wonderful country of ours, the world even -- no need to spend so many electrons on my own little corner of the world.

But I noticed that Dan Zanes had announced some new tour dates including... three whole concerts in Arizona. That's right, on Friday, Feb. 8, Zanes and friends will hit Phoenix's Orpheum Theatre, then will head two hours south for a concert at Tucson's Rialto Theatre on Saturday the 9th, then back four hours north to Flagstaff's Orpheum Theatre for a concert on Sunday the 10th. (Yeah, I can't figure out that order, either.)

Needless to say, I'm excited about this, for a couple reasons, actually. First, obviously, is because it means another chance to see Zanes in concert without having to travel down to Tucson. If we go, I guess the question is whether our son, less than two years old back in April, would join us at a 7 PM Friday night show... Hmmm....

The other reason I'm excited is that it's really the first time that a major kids' musician (excluding the Wiggles, who are in their own category) is making multiple Arizona stops. Heck, it's really the first time that a major kids' musician is coming to Phoenix. (For those of you who want to list their own musician who has, in fact, played the Phoenix area, I'm sorry, "major" includes maybe five or six artists.)

So, if you live anywhere near Phoenix, please, please, please make it to this show. If you can't, tell your friends to make it to this show. I think Phoenix is on the verge of no longer being stupidly ignored by kids' music bookers (I hear rumors of other artists looking into the area), but the reluctance of artists to book shows here won't appear so stupid if Zanes plays to a half-full house.

Reminder: Saturday Sing-Along With Doug Snyder

If you live in the Phoenix area, don't forget that Doug Snyder, main man of the Jellydots, will be playing a free Saturday Sing-Along at Stinkweeds this Saturday, June 9, starting at 10 AM.

(If you don't live in the Phoenix area, well, I can't help you then. Make your own Saturday music experience. Do Breakfast with Enzo Garcia in San Francisco. Or go to Baby Loves Disco in LA. Or listen to Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child or Greasy Kid Stuff. Or just sing and dance in the comfort of your own home. Whatever.)

Doug's relocated here to Phoenix, so if you're in the area, this is a great chance to meet him. (And, if you or your kids have a hankerin' to learn guitar, to schedule a lesson.)

Stinkweeds, located at Central and Camelback, will be opening up at 10 AM for this, and the weather looks like it'll be tolerable. (Whoo-hoo! Tolerable!) Come early, 'cuz based on the attendance last time, I think it'll be pretty packed.

Look for me -- I'll be the guy with the lime-green uke.

Concert Review: The Hold Steady (Phoenix, June 2007)

The Hold Steady are not kids' musicians.

This will come as a shock to absolutely nobody, but I felt like stating that before explaining exactly why I thought a brief review of The Hold Steady's Saturday night show at the Brickhouse in Phoenix was appropriate for this site.

Goodness knows that the lyrical content of the band's songs are NSFK. If Craig Finn had lent his hand to popular kids' songs, Mary would have developed a nasty heroin habit after Little Boy Blue sold her lamb to pay off a gambling debt incurred somewhere in St. Anthony Falls. (It would've sounded awesome, though.) As Finn quipped when noting that they'd be playing Vegas the next night, a city they'd never played before, "I enjoy a lot of vices, but gambling's not one of them. But here's a song about it." And then they launched into "Chips Ahoy!"

I'm rapidly approaching that point in my life where rock concertgoing involves serious cost-benefit analysis, and of course I treat it in such a way that my younger self would've mocked. Avoid the alcohol because it'll mess up my sleep? Check. Wear comfortable shoes? Check. Use earplugs? Check. My younger self? Heck, the band would've mocked me. (Except for the earplugs part.)

But the show was worth it, in large part due to Finn's energetic showmanship, muttering to himself, leading the crowd in singalongs, encouraging them to clap along, dragged the crowd by force of will alone. It was oddly reminiscent of... wait for it... Dan Zanes.

Really.

Remember that concert down in Tucson? Yeah, well, for the first twenty minutes Zanes, like Finn, pleaded, cajoled, and begged the crowd to get into the show, and by the end of the show, they were completely part of the experience. (Finn isn't hurt by having four very talented musicians helping him to put his words into energetic songs.)

I doubt the Hold Steady and Dan Zanes, even though they both call Brooklyn home, would get together to just play music. Heck, keyboardist Franz Nicolay founded the "Anti-Social Music" collective, while Zanes almost called his Catch That Train! album "Social Music."

But they do share an infectious joy in performing, something that Finn noted from the stage. I'm sure it's something he says at the end of many shows, but seeing Finn grin for most of the concert made it easy to believe him when he said that "There's a lot of joy in performing up here." It's a sentiment that Zanes would agree with completely.

And one of these days when Finn settles down a bit and decides to write about people becoming (probably bad) parents, perhaps he can sing about getting home from the club at 1 AM and being woken up at 5:30 AM by the kids.

Harrowing, I tell you.

Notes On Playing Kids Music Live

[Read to the very end to find out a cool announcement about a Phoenix-area show.]

Unlike some of my Offsprung colleagues (Dr. Flea, Erica Perl, do stop by), I'm an amateur practitioner of music, kids' or otherwise. I enjoy playing, but my audiences are rarely any larger than the 3 other members of my immediate family.

So, remember the Singalong Saturday that my local record store, Stinkweeds, was going to host with my help? (Humor me and say yes.)

Yeah, it was lots of fun. Lots of people -- maybe 40 -- for something that was publicized at close to the last minute. I brought some rhythm instruments (shakers, Casio drum machines... OK, no drum machines). The weather cooperated -- wonderfully mild.

And the music? Well, it can be viewed in one of two ways.
1) Dario's Magic Bus was a nifty little trio of Dario on guitar and Jason and Justin playing upright bass and a single-drum drum set.
2) I played, too.

That's right. In the corner stood me and my lime green Dan Zanes ukelele, playing along with "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Old MacDonald," and the like.

There's just an itsy bitsy problem.

My current chordal knowledge on the uke is limited to 5, maybe 6 chords, much less if I don't have my chord book in front of me.

And so, if the band wasn't playing in the key of the chords I was familiar with, I was forced to strum idly with a silly grin on my face. Which is a not uncommon expression for me, but typically I'm not looking that way in front of three dozen strangers.

I really don't mind improvising, but if I were going to do that, I'd much rather pull out my violin, where my ability to transpose is crudely competent.

But when I'm asked to lead the crowd in "Pay Me My Money Down" (Dario, while very cool, didn't have a setlist long enough for the full hour) it's, well, a lot harder than you'd think.

It's not just skill in playing music, there's a definite art in working the crowd, and one that I've got a lot to learn about.

That's why I'm very excited that Stinkweeds will have the Jellydots' Doug Snyder at their next Singalong Saturday, on June 9th at 10 AM. It'll be the last Singalong before the summer break, so come early as I think this free event will be even more popular than the first one.

Don't worry, the owner and I are already thinking about events for the fall. And, as far as I'm aware, I'm not on that calendar of events.

By the way, Doug's now living in Phoenix, and so if you or your kids are lookin' for guitar lessons (you've always wanted to learn how to play "Bicycle," right?), drop him a line through his website.