Dan Zanes, Brig

"I think music can really bring people together in a way that few other pursuits can. It's so easy and it's so fundamental to our culture." Dan Zanes says, and he certainly inspires audience participation. I know, I've sung at the top of my lungs to a song I had never heard before.

The Brigantine Room in York Quay has windows which lit up the cookies and milk table, behind grey plastic chairs set up in tidy but flexible rows (to stroller parking that looked liked bumper cars, along the far wall). Kids knew instantly where they wanted to be, rushing right in front of the stage to about 75 bright red square cushions! Families gathered and settled in, chatting about the impending music they all seemed to know and love.

A founding member of the brother band rock act the Del Fuegos, Zanes has turned his energies to making music that appeals to children and parents alike. The spring 2005 show was not announced with much notice, but it sold out. The entire crowd was clearly sold on his music. I followed the leader in his kooky suit thru the venue in a musical march and I danced and smiled and clapped and sang out loud and all!!! Everybody was into it. It was crazy! What a zany family dance party. I even had to jump behind the cd table and make the first sale, but nothing that afternoon felt like work. It felt like a team effort fun day, an all ages party where the whole entire crowd came together voluntarily, like a huge happy dancing family.

The Dan Zanes & Friends albums released -- available through a variety of retailers and web site DanZanes.com -- have employed the likes of Aimee Mann, Suzanne Vega, John Doe, Lou Reed, Sheryl Crow and other guests to help him flesh out entertaining sing-along songs. What a stellar line up of recordings I have to look forward to! Despite having new children's book and DVD projects in stores, Zanes has no plans of slowing down, so I suggest you do your best to catch up with him.

When we looked up at the stage and saw the band throwing themselves into the tunes, we could picture our selves making music more too. On the front steps stamping feet and clapping hands to Miss Mary Mack? A mother teaching a daughter chords on the banjo? (Or, maybe the kid is doing the teaching?) Or, holding hands and dancing in a circle while a neighbour tries to make it through a John Prine song on guitar? Smiley Dan Zanes got us there. And it was awesome!

I still sing the praises of Harbourfront Family programming!