After spending the 1980s performing with the Del Fuegos, singer and songwriter Dan Zanes launched the Dan Zanes Trio in 1994. The project took shape during informal sessions with producer Mitchell Froom in Lower Manhattan, and once drummer Jerry Marotta joined, the three began delivering sparse blues and folk-rock sets before small audiences at venues such as the CBGB Gallery. Froom produced their first album, Cool Down Time, which surfaced in 1995 as a raw rock recording steeped in 1960s R&B. Zanes reemerged in 2001 with the children’s album Rocket Ship Beach, a folk-inflected collection that included contributions from Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, Donald Saaf, Rankin Don, and the Sandy Girls. He extended the Dan Zanes & Friends series the next year through the releases of Family Dance and Night Time, then issued House Party in 2003, followed in 2004 by Sea Music and Parades and Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg, and Catch That Train! the year after that. In 2008 he unveiled Nueva York!, a set of songs drawn from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, and followed it in 2009 with 76 Trombones, a gathering of Broadway material. Little Nut Tree arrived in 2011, an energetic family-oriented assortment packaged inside a sturdy children’s board book. Zanes then joined Elizabeth Mitchell, previously of Ida, to record the acoustic family collection Turn Turn Turn in 2013. His subsequent effort, Lead Belly, Baby!, appeared in 2017 and offered new readings of songs by the legendary folk-blues artist Lead Belly, featuring appearances by Billy Bragg, Chuck D, Valerie June, Ashley Phillips, and additional guests.
