Dan Zanes' Holiday House Party

So Dan, how do you get all this Big Name artists to play with you?

Because I was in a rock-n-roll band for the beginning of my adult life and I ended up making friends along the way! To be able to work with Bob Weir, Debbie Harry, or Sheryl Crow, it's a real treat for me. The adults are just as important as the young people: I never thought of what we do as children music. It's always been all ages music, family music. When we started, there were number of people doing children music, music that's particular to the experience of children, but not much for adults. For myself as a parent, I wanted a shared experience with my daughter. That's the old fashioned way. We want our kids to connect emotionally with the music, we want to be in it together, in the pool together. It's fun for me to have the celebrity guest, and fun for the adults.

The House Party show is, well, let's let Dan describe it:

the basic idea is that it's the end of the year, I'm going to have a holiday party in my sunken living room.A group of my friends have come over to say a quick hello, and a freak snow storm traps everybody in the house, and so we all start singing songs and entertaining each other. But kids here won't relate to that snowstorm part in SF! Yeah, it will feel like an exotic experience! But my friends include Derrick Grant, who is America's favorite tap dancer, the Villa Lobos brothers from Veracruz , Mexico. Two of our friends are incredible Arabic jazz musicians, and Basya Schecter, the well known Jewish singer. Then, there is shadow puppetry in the middle of it all, and my band, there are six of us, so there's a lot of people. There is a little handful of kids, there is seasonal decoration, a Christmas tree and menorahs. Things are happening along the way. We are in a twenty-first century holiday party, it's not only about Christmas, it's really about a lot of different traditions. So in a way, we get to touch on the familiar, but we get to learn some new things along the way. Maybe not learn, but experience new things. For me, I've never sung along on any Arabic music before, but there are three Arabic songs from the Sufi tradition in the show. To be singing those songs, it really feel like a modern day America. Everything is very celebratory and festive.

Do you actually have such jam sessions? Do the blind boys pop in for dinner?

Actually, with the five blind boys, it was lunch! Yeah we did, we sat down and we had fried chicken and pie. We rehearsed the song while we were eating, and then we walked into the living room and we recorded it. You mean, not in a sudio, in the living room? Yeah, every record has been made in my house. It's important to me that it sounds like a house. It's funny that, in our first theatrical production, we're still in a house, the set really is a house. So much of the joy of music-making lives in people's homes, with friends and neighbors. That's really the message that I'm always working with: The joy of music-making is something that we do, and that's something you can do too, it's available to everybody. In the 21st century, we're going to be less and less consumers, where all we do is buy, and we're going to be making more of our own music. That is something you can do too. Don't let the professionals have all the fun! And families are the perfect audience for this message.

Well, it's getting tough to make music, they're cutting music funding in schools.

That's why when we speak, we're not speaking of schools, although there are so many dedicated people who are keeping it alive in schools . But really you as a parent. There's so much you can do around the house just by singing yourself. Whether you have a good voice or not is totally beside the point. It's really what we can all do to have a little music in our daily lives. Just singing a song when folding the laundry is a good thing! It sets such a good example for our kids and take away the inhibition away from it.

So that's the message?

Every that I've ever said in interviews, every message I ever wanted to get across, this show is the distillation of all of that. The spirit of inclusion is so apparent in this show, that everybody is in it together, the exchange of traditions and the telling of stories. It's my idea of a perfect afternoon, because of the friends, and the feeling of collaboration and celebration.

One thing I'm happy, during these economic times, there are so many people having to make financial decision as far as the holiday show you can take your family too, this one is a bargain. There's canceling show with the Rockettes here at Radio City Music Hall, but we're doing really well with our show at a fraction of the price, and it's still a pretty wild production. It's a good deal in these economic times.

Duly noted.

We always come into the lobby after the show, the show becomes more of an experience, people get to meet the performers, we always hang around afterwards, so be sure to say Hi!

Looks like we will.