Daniel Edgerly Zanes (born November 8, 1961) is an American rock, folk, and children's musician. He was a member of the 1980s band the Del Fuegos, the frontman of the group Dan Zanes and Friends, and currently performs with his wife, Claudia Eliaza Zanes, as Dan + Claudia.
Early life and education
Zanes's father was a teacher, as well as a poet and writer.[2] He is brother to fellow musician and former bandmate Warren Zanes.[3]
Zanes attended Oberlin College, where he met bandmate Tom Lloyd.[3]
The Del Fuegos
The Del Fuegos played in lofts, bars, warehouses, small art galleries, clubs, barns, college dining halls, fraternity houses, gymnasiums, auditoriums, and, finally, big theaters.
After Zanes, his wife at the time, Paula Greif, and their young daughter moved to New York City, Zanes began playing music with a group of other fathers that he had met in West Village playgrounds. This informal group became the Wonderland String Band, which played at parks and parties and recorded a tape of songs at Zanes' home.[citation needed]
Dan Zanes
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 children or just for adults. So, he added a small number of women to his band, renamed it the Rocket Ship Revue, and began 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.[citation needed]
The album, Rocket Ship Beach (2000),[4] was also a hit. The New York Times Magazine called it "cool", and added, "Mostly, though, Zanes' kids music works because it is not kids music; it's just music–music that's unsanitized, unpasteurized, that's organic even." Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega made guest appearances on the album. [citation needed]
In 2000, he founded the group Dan Zanes and Friends and launched the record label Festival Five Records.[7] As noted by Variety in 2004, "what makes Zanes and Friends such a treasure is that they exist outside the corporate structure. There’s no attempt to cross-promote or create a consumer. All that matters is having fun".[8]
The second album, Family Dance (2001) is composed of dance songs from a wide variety of musical traditions and features Loudon Wainwright III and Rosanne Cash. The third recording, the more mellow Night Time! (2002), features collaborations with Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, John Doe, Dar Williams, and other established musicians.[9]
In 2003, he played himself on Dragon Tales Let's Start a Band on TV film. The fourth album in the family series is House Party (2003),[6] a rambunctious 20-song collection with a diverse instrumentation that, in addition to the usual guitars, banjos, upright bass and drums, includes such instruments as violin, tuba, accordion, trombone, pump organ, djembe and saw. House Party was nominated for a Grammy in the Musical Album for Children category. Music video selections from the House Party album played during the Disney Channel's morning program suite known as Playhouse Disney from 2005 to 2007. New music video selections occasionally played on Nickelodeon's Noggin.
Since 2021, Zanes has performed with his wife, Claudia Eliaza Zanes, as Dan + Claudia. The couple have released two albums together: Let Love Be Your Guide (2021) and Pieces of Home (2024).[12][13]
Personal life
In 1987, Zanes married Paula Greif, the director of the video for the Del Fuegos song, I Still Want You.[citation needed] After the dissolution of The Del Fuegos, the couple moved to "a small town in the Catskill Mountains".[6] The couple had one daughter, born in 1994.[3]
Zanes has spoken on the importance of white people knowing about and working to deconstruct systemic racism.[14] In 2011, Zanes co-founded Constructive White Conversations, an antiracist organization focused on white people.[15]
In 2016, Zanes met Claudia Eliaza; the two married in 2018. In 2019, the couple moved from Brooklyn to Baltimore.[15][16] The couple are Christians, and currently are members of a Black Baptist church in Baltimore.[16]
