Dan and Claudia Zanes Build a Lovely Guide

Dan Zanes has been the de facto face of the evolution of children's music over the past 20 years. ROCKET SHIP BEACH in 2000 struck a chord called "kindie" that served as a template for batches of lesser acts (trust me, many sent their home-pressed CDs for review). Zanes expanded his repertoire to encompass lullabies, dance music, sea shanties, Latin America, and show tunes. Eventually, he cultivated material from the Great American songbook of early folk and blues performers, such as Lead Belly, Carl Sandburg, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. In 2018, he even released a spectrum-friendly CD, NIGHT TRAIN 57, with future spouse Claudia Eliaza and Yuriana Sobrino.

Rebranded as part of the duo Dan + Claudia Zanes, the new collection LET LOVE BE YOUR GUIDE has been released by Smithsonian Folkways. Coming from the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, Dan and Claudia have incorporated a raft of area musicians to tackle themes of racism inequity, community, social justice, and paying forward positive messages for new generations. 

The material for LET LOVE BE YOUR GUIDE (and much more) was developed shortly after the couple relocated from Brooklyn. The coronavirus pandemic pushed Dan and Claudia to create a new song online every day, as their "Social Isolation Song Series." Did they expect the experience to last as long as it did (200 days)? Regardless, the series is now part of the Library of Congress and acted as a new template for the socially-conscious music Dan and Claudia sought to create for young audiences and their families.

Dan and Claudia have set a high bar with the title track, a paean to the late voting rights advocate John Lewis and "Reparations is a Must," about setting right the wrongs of history, with a side swing at the concept of critical race theory. "Coming Down" uses Claudia's own life experiences and Dan's keen songwriting abilities to conceptualize the end of white supremacy and the industrial military complex. The challenges and reality of mixed marriage are related on "Two Different Worlds." Childhood fears (and day to day adult anxieties) are addressed with clarity, faith, and optimism on "Hold On."

My older son turned 20 this year. Through his eyes, we've witnessed the full scope of the Dan Zanes evolution. Zanes let love be his guide with Claudia, as they've settled into the welcoming embrace of Baltimore. Armed with a fully actualized agenda of themes for families, Dan and Claudia are poised to paint a larger portrait as they harvest their new template.

LET LOVE BE YOUR GUIDE is available from Claudia and Dan Zanes' website, Smithsonian Folkways, Amazon, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for their song, "Let Love Be Your Guide":

Mitchell, Paz Plant Spanish Flowers for Children

The world is a messed-up beautiful place. And the American President is a very divisive figure; to the extent that I resent including him in any discussion about children's music. But music is a gateway to real-world issues for many children. Music is a way to gently show youthful listeners that evil can be overcome through unity.

Smithsonian Folkways has tasked Elizabeth Mitchell and Suni Paz with a mission to display this musical unity with grace, charm, and simplicity. Their CD, TU ERES MI FLOR echoes the name of Mitchell's website "You Are My Flower." The 17 songs are primarily in Spanish, although hints of other cultures stream through, including on Dan Zanes' "Hello."

I'll leave the CD's mission statement to Suni Paz, who emigrated to the United States from Argentina in 1965: "This recording is now – more than ever before – a necessity. We are living in an historic time, in which Latinos, Hispanics, and all immigrants are being disrespected and vilified, so honoring their language in songs is much needed."

Songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and Renee and Jeremy's "It's A Big World" take on whole new secondary meanings when performed in another language. Guest artists such as Sonia de los Santos enliven tracks like Paz's "Love and Care." Bob Marley's eternal "Three Little Birds" transcends language. For the inquisitive, TU ERES MI FLOR comes with a "reversible" bilingual booklet with lyrics and liner notes.

In its 70th year, Smithsonian Folkways makes nearly 60,000 tracks available in physical and digital format as the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, reaching 80 million people per year. While not explicitly part of its mission, TU ERES MI FLOR accomplishes its mission – using song to show the connection between Spanish and American folk music. Elizabeth Mitchell and Suni Paz demonstrate that sometimes a message doesn't have to be chanted at rallies or walked about on placards. Sometimes a song can provide hope for blue clouds or peace like a river. Sometimes a song is enough.

TU ERES MI FLOR is available on April 6 from Elizbeth Mitchell's website, Smithsonian Folkways' website, and iTunes.

Here is the video for Elizabeth Mitchell's song, "Sleep Eye":

¡Come Bien! as José-Luis Orozco Serves Kids Music

I don't consider myself the Ugly American. I like to hear other languages musically and promote multi-lingualism in our home (although, to be fair, the second language has been Hebrew, considering last year's bar mitzvah). To that end, it was amusing when I opened Jose-Luis Orozco's new English-Spanish CD, ¡COME BIEN! EAT RIGHT! and my younger son exclaimed, "Is that from the PJ Library?" (A service that send Jewish-themed books to children).

A musician, composer, and educator, José-Luis has won multiple awards for his 16 (yes, 16) recordings. However this CD migrates his music to Smithsonian Folkways for the first time. José-Luis travels 125,000 miles per year performing singalongs to reach kids, families, and teachers. His multilingual music demonstrates that values translate naturally around the world and that you may not understand the words to a song but that there may be universal concepts and feelings behind them.

This theory becomes a reality in songs such as "Chocolate" and "The Fruit Conga." And as soon as "Sabrosos Colores" started, I realized that Dan Zanes has been singing this tune in concert for more than a decade. ¡COME BIEN! EAT RIGHT! is broken into two sections, Spanish and English. It's more than 70 minutes of music – and would have worked in the "old days" as a double concept album. It still works today – and there's not una sola palabra (one word) of Hebrew to confuse my youngest listener.

¡COME BIEN! EAT RIGHT! is available from Smithsonian Folkways, José-Luis' website, Amazon, and iTunes.

Mitchell & Co. Keep Folk Music, Holiday Spirit Alive

Jews reviewing Christmas music. Go nu?

The ever-prolific Elizabeth Mitchell has released her third CD in one year, THE SOUNDING JOY, a collection of Christmas and winter solstice songs from the Ruth Crawford Seeger songbook. Assembled by Smithsonian Folkways, it's as impressive a package as one might find for the holiday season.

Mitchell's family music collective, You Are My Flower, is rooted in an appreciation and recreation of the American folk sound. Any rocking is going to be more of the "rocking chair" variety than "electric massage chair."

The most upbeat grooving track on the CD is "Baby Born Today," featuring the Silver Hollers (Amy Helm, Ruth Ungar, and Chris Wood). It would not sound out of place on Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album from 2006. Ironically, that was a compendium of songs from Pete Seeger, Ruth Crawford Seeger's stepson.

Back to the central theme, Christmas and solstice, neither of which are in my wheelhouse. There's a disparity in radio play as far as holiday music between religions. While SiriusXM added a Hanukkah music channel for two weeks last year, there are stations around the country that play Christmas music year-round. I wouldn't say that I've ever been deprived of "holiday songs from my people," but get past "The Dreidel Song" and most Jewish children would be hard-pressed to come up with a second-favorite Hanukkah ditty.

THE SOUNDING JOY arrives with an esteemed pedigree and veritable laundry list of names, from John Sebastian to Natalie Merchant to frequent collaborator (they recorded TURN TURN TURN earlier this year) Dan Zanes. We went away over the weekend, I played THE SOUNDING JOY as background music. My brother commented, "Are Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes married?" and I replied, "Not to each other."

If you enjoy folk-fueled holiday music, THE SOUNDING JOY will make your day. The music is poetic; part gospel, part opera, ageless with glorious harmonies. Her fans will say that "Elizabeth Mitchell has done it again," but honestly it's what she's been doing all along, only with a holiday feel. The only difference is the irony in your level of celebration over an album of Christmas music.

THE SOUNDING JOY is available through Smithsonian Folkways, Amazon, and iTunes.

Here is the video for "Sleep Eye," from Mitchell's 2012 collection of Woody Guthrie songs, LITTLE SEED.