My kids have been into Dan Zanes’ music for a while and it’s something we happily encourage as it is some of the very best childrens’ music out there. It makes you resent the dinosaur that much more because it’s great roots oriented stuff that you genuinely want to hear and don’t get sick of. Plus, I get a touch of the good kind of nostalgia because I was into Zanes’ old band, The Del Fuegos, back when they were still playing.
Yet despite constantly favorable reviews from friends and the popularity of the music in our house, until this past weekend we hadn’t seen Zanes’ live show. Saturday he was in Richmond, Virginia, with his band and we got a line to check out the show. So the eduwife and I packed up the eduspawn and headed over. But while ostensibly a concert, it basically turns into a general admission show or, dance party as Zanes put it, for little kids. And, yes, they do get to run wild. It makes an impression. One of my daughters, not worn out after constantly moving for more than an hour down under the stage, didn’t stop saying “let’s do another concert” for 45 minutes afterwards. And, if you listen carefully, at times you can hear a few of those hooks that made the Del Fuegos so contagious. Bonus: Even though he was part of the Disney empire (but Kay Hanley is, too, these days so who knows) for a while on TV, Zanes’ live show is refreshingly non-commercial and non-product linked. CDs were $12, for instance. So no serious point here except this is good fun for kids of all ages.
Love Dan Zanes, and it’s great someone makes music for kids that isn’t homogenized crap.
Someone should give Barney a real T-rex to play with.
So will this be a recurring musical feature on EduWonk? It gives a blog soul, you know!
By the way, we’ll check it out for our two-year-old. He’s totally into music — really likes Amy Winehouse at the moment. Another good children’s artist we like is Stuart Stotts. http://eduoptimists.blogspot.com/2008/05/musical-elective-of-week_04.html He’s much more traditional, but he got me dancing — on the stage.
Ralphs World:
http://www.ralphsworld.com/
As if we don’t have enough reasons to read Eduwonk, we now have shout outs to the mighty Del Fuegos, the greatest rock band ever to rise up out of the mean streets of Concord, NH!
LOVED Dan Zanes in the hard core kids’ music stage. Check out Justin Roberts, ABD U of Chicago drop-out in astrophysics, theology or some equally intense field, for hilarious lyrics, great brass section and totally danceable music, especially for kids at the weeble stage. http://www.justinroberts.org.
Had my kids in bars all across Chicago on Sunday afternoons hangin with Justin and the Not Ready for Naptime Players.
Are there more testimonials around the site?