November 27, 2005
Dan Zanes, San Francisco, 11/26/05.
Dan Zanes and the rest of the house party gang. (I think they were singing "Pay Me My Money Down" here.)
Izzy's first few years are a blur now; somehow I can't remember what her very first concert was (Dan Zanes or Gillian Welch). This is her second Zanes concert, to whose music she grew up. Back when he performed in Berkeley last year (or maybe the year before) Izzy was too small to really jump around with the bigger kids. But here she is now, front and center at the concert (like father, like daughter).
Dan Zanes' music isn't just for kids. It's exuberant folk music that encompasses sea shanties, West African counting songs, lullabies, and gospel, plus a generous dip into the American Folkways catalog. (And his buddies, who just happen to be Sandra Bernhard, John Doe, Philip Glass, Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Lou Reed and Aimee Mann, among others.) The fact that he also sings "Skip To My Lou" and "Polly Wolly Doodle" shouldn't deter adult listeners; it's a reclaiming -- not that they needed reclamation in the first place! -- of the so-called "children's song" as an obvious part of the musical vernacular.
The whole point of Zanes' concerts is that it's a house party in his living room; the kids, therefore, get to jump and dance right up front (I sat along the back in the orchestra pit). Izzy was enthralled, standing right at Zanes' feet. The set proceeded much along the Berkeley show we saw previously (though with the addition of the Foggy Five (five kids playing wind instruments) and an African dancer); there was nothing wrong, though, with a show that included "Hello," "Wonderwheel," "Que Fortunidad," "Smile for a While," and "All Around the Kitchen." (I think at this point Dad was singing along more than Izzy was, who was still spellbound up front.)
The big guns were reserved for last, once Father Goose stepped up to the mic and delivered his nursery rhymes in a dancehall style. As before, they ended with "The Hokey Pokey" (much audience interaction for that one) and marched off the stage and into the audience with the always-grand "Sidewalks of New York." (Later Izzy met Dan Zanes outside and shook his hand. Fangirl for life.)