Dan + Claudia Zanes

Another wild weekend!
We’re so grateful for the opportunity to get out and make some music with you this Saturday and Sunday.
We’re bringing the songs to the people and we can’t wait!
Here’s what we’ve got:
Saturday, January 13 at 5pm
Nassau Presbyterian Church
Princeton, NJ

Sunday, January 14th at 2pm
Centerstage - Reston Community Center
Reston, VA

These are both all-ages shows. We’ll see you there!!

Well, this is definitely a special occasion!
I’m wishing my wife Claudia a happy healthy meaningful musical birthday today.
The love of my life, my best friend, my heart and my soul. I can’t imagine life without this inspiring and uplifting woman.
Every minute that we have together is a blessing and a cause for celebration.
And today? Let the celebration reach up into that sunny sky!!

What a way to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary…. 💜💜💜
We signed again with our all-time favorite record company, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Look for a new one from us in 2024!
Love wins again… 💜

It was definitely festive!
Our Kennedy Center Holiday Bash was such a beautiful time and now it’s online for anyone who wants to jump in and sing along. (The link is below).
Thank you Elena Moon Park, Tyree Austin, Munit and Z Lovebugs for this night to remember and thank you to everyone at the Kennedy Center for inviting us to dress up and celebrate the season with you.
And special thank you to the Access/VSA Department for making this show sensory friendly (and for printing up our songbooks in standard format, large print, and braille). We’re looking forward to seeing more sensory friendly (or “relaxed” as they call it in the UK) conditions at concerts in 2024.
If you come to our shows, you can come as you are!
Whatever you celebrate….Happy Holidays, we love you!
https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/december/dan-and-claudia-zanes/

It’s that time!
The Dan + Claudia Zanes Holiday Bash featuring Tyree Austin and Elena Moon Park with special guests Munit and Z Lovebugs
at the The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage!
Friday, December 22nd at 6pm.
This show is sensory friendly and free!
And…it’s live and live-streamed.
The website says it’s sold out but that’s a little misleading, there are tickets available in the lobby starting at 4:30pm. First come, first served.
The livestream link will be posted on the website at 6pm.
We hope you can join us, this is going to be a holiday sing-song to remember!
(And yes, of course we’ll have songbooks).
As a side note, most of what we know about creating sensory friendly performance conditions we learned from the incredible people in the Kennedy Center’s Access/VSA department. They have been our accessibility guides for many years and we are so grateful to be coming back to where this crucial education started…
Happy Holidays, Good People!!
Here’s the link to the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/december/dan-and-claudia-zanes/
And as if this weren’t enough great news:
Elena Moon Park and Friends will be performing in the Kennedy Center Children’s Theater on January 20! This is going to be an inspiring show for the whole family, get your tickets while you still can…

The beautiful birthday wishes yesterday meant so much to me. I feel like the most blessed little scorpio on the planet!
Claudia made sure that the day was memorable from beginning (bagels and lox) to end (a soup that she made with squash, broccoli, fish sauce, pomegranate, mint, cilantro, hot pepper, and peanut among other ingredients. I didn’t know what to expect and it was awesome! And wouldn’t you know? There’s some left for today).
I’m so grateful to be alive today and to feel surrounded by so much love and inspiration from family, friends, colleagues, fellow travelers, and Claudia - my heart and soul.
My deepest thanks to you all.

Bring out the party hats and dancing shoes and help me celebrate the man we all know and love, Dan Zanes!
Happy Birthday baby!! 🎂
Everyday with you feels like some kind of a celebration and I’m here for all of it!
You are truly one of the most beautiful humans I know and I’m so grateful to walk this journey of life with you.
Keep shining your light my love. You do it so naturally and we are all grateful for it.
I love you with all that I have and all that I am. HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYYY❣️❣️❣️

Yes it’s true, Iowa.
We’re coming back!
Friday, September 15th, at 6:30pm we’ll be rocking the Jamie Hurd Amphitheater. FREE
Saturday, September 16th, at 10:00am we’ll be waking up and stirring up Doanes Park. FREE!
We love Iowa and can’t wait to see you all again for some all-ages family music. Come as you are, friends.
Thank you to Des Moines Performing Arts for this beautiful opportunity.

Yes it’s true, Iowa.
We’re coming back!
Friday, September 15th, at 6:30pm we’ll be rocking the Jamie Hurd Amphitheater. FREE
Saturday, September 16th, at 10:00am we’ll be waking up and stirring up Doanes Park. FREE!
We love Iowa and can’t wait to see you all again for some all-ages family music. Come as you are, friends.
Thank you to Des Moines Performing Arts for this beautiful opportunity.

If you’re in the DMV this Thursday, August 3rd please join us for a free outdoor concert at the world famous Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland.
We’ll start rocking at 7pm.
It’s going to be a night for:
Singing!
Dancing!
Greatest hits!
New songs!
Hanging out with friends!
A special guest or two!
A crazy merch table (we recently cleaned the basement)!
What a way to start the weekend…

Here’s something you may not know: In the 80’s I played in a rock and roll band called The Del Fuegos.
I used to say it’s how I wasted my youth but it wasn’t a waste at all, it was an awesome experience and every few decades we get together and jump into the way back machine.
Please join me, Warren Zanes, Tom Lloyd and Woody Giessmann next Saturday, July 15th at the East Bridgewater Commercial Club-EBCC just outside Boston, Mass as we command the stage once again. The link for tickets is below.
Don’t Run Wild! I Still Want You! Backseat Nothing! Nervous and Shaky! We’ll be playing all the hits and more!
In this show we’ll also be lighting a candle and singing for our brother Bob Toomey aka Brother Cleve who passed away last year. Cleve was the keyboard player for The Del Fuegos during all of our touring life and an inspiring and influential figure on the national mixology scene. We miss him and will always be grateful for the humor, class, dignity, music, and freewheeling joy that he brought to our band. Not to mention cool hats and facial hair. In Cleve’s place we’ll be joined onstage by the up and coming Haitian keyboard star Caleb Texier.
One thing about The Del Fuegos that has stayed with me for my entire life: we lived for social music. It wasn’t a gig unless people danced. Our fans were everything to us and the best fans of all were always in Boston, our hometown. It means so much to us to be able to return for a summer weekend show outside the city that raised us.
Could it get any better? Yes! Our opening act is Pink Houses, a John Mellencamp tribute band. If you know me, you know I love tribute bands and this is a great one.
Doors at 4pm
Thank you Arthur Elgort for making us look good in the hairy photos.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legendary-boston-rockers-the-del-fuegos-reunion-concert-july-15-2023-tickets-624922168027

We’re heading down to the 48th The Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts to play this Saturday and Sunday, February 25+26 at 3pm each day, in the Earl Cameron Theater.
To say we’re excited, grateful, and ready to rock would be a huge understatement!
Thank you to everyone at the festival for this timely invitation and for giving us the opportunity to do so much community outreach before the shows.
Are you a musician in Bermuda? If you feel like jamming, let us know!
Small Island, Big Smiles, indeed…

Hancher Auditorium here we come to help celebrate 50 years of incredible art!
We’re so excited for this trip to Iowa City where we’ll be bringing music to communities in various intimate outreach situations throughout the week and on Saturday February 18th we’ll be taking the stage at 2pm in the world famous Hancher Auditorium.
This is such a meaningful trip and we hope you can be there with us!

It’s family time once again!
And when we say family, we mean all of you…
Come as you are this weekend for some all-ages social music. We’re going to sing and dance and welcome in the new year together.

Saturday, January 21st at 5pm we’ll be at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ
Instead of tickets the church is asking concert goers to bring a canned or boxed food item in support of a mission partner called Arm in Arm.

Sunday, January 22nd at 2pm we’ll be at The Grand Opera House, Baby Grand, in Wilmington, Delaware. This is a sensory friendly / relaxed performance, come enjoy the music in any way you feel.

It’s so exciting to be making music with you all once again!!

We wish you all a happy, healthy, musical new year. Our hearts are full of gratitude for the many many uplifting people in our lives.
We hope that together in 2023 we all find new freedom and joy.
And yes, today we also recognize and celebrate Haitian Independence Day! 🇭🇹

From Dan:
Rest In Peace Ian Tyson…

When I was a kid we lived in Fredricton, New Brunswick. Canada.

There was chaos in the home at that time. Yelling, slamming doors, breaking plates and furniture, bitter silences. I was six, I didn’t know anything about alcohol abuse. But I knew we were all in a lot of pain. There was something else going on too. There were records! My favorites by far were the ones by Ian and Sylvia, a husband and wife duo who sang “Four Strong Winds,” “Someday Soon” “The French Girl” and “V’le Le Bon Vent” among others. Old songs. New songs. Story songs. Romantic songs. They were totally inside the music and delivered with complete confidence, authority, and…love. Folk was a manly man’s world back then but they were different. It wasn’t Ian’s group and it wasn’t Sylvia’s either. It felt like a true partnership, balanced, emotional, and rocking. They sang in beautiful harmony, and it was just about the only harmony in my life at that point.

Eventually my parents divorced and our mother moved us to New Hampshire. A copy of Ian and Sylvia’s Greatest Hits came too. In the following years it was a constant source of comfort and inspiration. Time passed and I experienced love myself, the teenage kind that doesn’t last too long. Ian and Sylvia were there for me when my heart was broken and my spirit defeated. Their music told me that someday life could be better than all this.

In my early twenties, I moved to New York. By this time Ian and Sylvia had also divorced and were both performing and recording strong solo music. One night in the late 80’s, I went to hear Sylvia at the Lone Star Cafe and met the soon-to-be legendary songwriter Tom Russell. Incredibly, he was writing songs with both Ian and Sylvia. We became friends and Tom would tell me stories about Ian Tyson, who at this point was fully realized as Canada’s premier cowboy singer. His music after Ian and Sylvia was every bit as lyrically charged and evocative. He moved forward in his life with style and commitment.

About seven years ago I was invited to play at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival in British Columbia. Ian Tyson was on the bill! I played my set and settled in to watch as he put thousands of loyal Canadian fans into a musical trance. They went everywhere with him during that concert. There was no drifting away, no spacing out, no checking phones, just complete dedication to the cowboy and his songs. I made my way back to his trailer after the show to say hello. We had a few minutes to ourselves and I was able to thank him for all that he’d done for me through his music. He was gracious in every way and I was happy to see that he loved being Ian Tyson.

About two years later, my friend Pauline Jean introduced me to Claudia. It was Labor Day 2016. We spent the afternoon singing and I knew then that Claudia was the person I’d been dreaming about my entire life. When we harmonized, I could feel the sense of peace and possibility that I’d felt when I was a kid living in a house on fire and the music of Ian and Sylvia told me that there might be a life of love and harmony out there for me.

I’m grateful that I had the chance to thank him when I did and I’m grateful for the chance to thank him again here.

Thank you, Ian Tyson. You gave the world hope and harmony. Although you’re bound for moving on, we’ll do our best to continue your legacy…

( On day #27 of our Social Isolation Song Series we sang Four Strong Winds. You can hear it here: https://youtu.be/-aq1dwQdP_o )

Happy Kwanzaa to all who celebrate!
This is our first year having a kinara in the house (Dan built it for me) and I’m here for all of it!
Tonight marks the start of the 7 day celebration of Black cultural heritage and traditional values (Dec 26th - Jan 1).
We use this time to gather as a people/family to reflect on the past and work together to improve our future.
Each day we look at one of the seven principles.

Day 1 - Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. 🖤

Day 2 - Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. ❤️

Day 3 - Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our community’s problems our problems and to solve them together. 💚

Day 4 - Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. ❤️

Day 5 - Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. 💚

Day 6 - Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. ❤️

Day 7 - Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our hearts in our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. 💚

May the 7 principles continue to light the way forward and fill us with purpose.
❤️🖤💚

We’re wishing you all happy holidays, whatever they may be…
We love our Baltimore neighbors. This was taken last night as we prepared for a Christmas pajama party (!) on the block. The joint was rockin’ and festive vibes prevailed…

This weekend:
We can barely contain ourselves…
Two holiday all-ages family shows at the legendary Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores, Florida? With our old friend the musical gift-giver Elena Moon Park? And our new friend, Haitian-American star Inez Barlatier?
We are truly blessed and ready to rock!
Please join us on Saturday, December 17th, at 1pm and 4pm est for our final holiday sing along party of 2022.

It’s time for the CLEO Soaps Holiday Collection!
Claudia sings, plays flute, guitar, trombone, and theremin. You know that already.
But did you know she’s a soap maker?
Cleo Soaps are outrageous. Natural goodness and love, artfully designed.
They feel great on the skin and the scents are intoxicating. The holiday collection is truly inspired. If you’re looking for some meaningful gifts this season, I encourage you to wander through the selections on the website, your family and friends will thank you…
Take it from me, the best smelling white man in Baltimore.

https://cleosoaps.com/

Please join us this weekend at the Zoellner Arts Center on the beautiful campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA for our first holiday show of the season.
We’ll be living it up with Elena Moon Park and our special guest, the one and only James White.
This show is sensory friendly, come as you are.
If you haven’t been to one of our holiday shows before you can expect to sing a range of songs from here and there, near and far. It’s social music for the season, baby!

We’ll see you there party people!
Chutzpah! Festival & The Norman Rothstein Theatre

We’ll see you there, party people!

It’s a Westport kind of weekend, party people!
And you know we love our Unitarian Church communities…
If you’re in the area, please consider joining us at the Voices Cafe in the Unitarian Church of Westport, Connecticut tomorrow, Saturday, November 5th at 4pm for more all-ages social electric folk music. Yes!

We’ll be rockin’ The Kennedy Center once again!
Please join us with percussion player Mari Takeda at the Millenium Stage this Friday, October 21st. We’ll tune up and turn on at 6pm. The show is free and it’s being live-streamed. This is all-ages social music. Everyone is invited.
We had a musical Baltimore summer and now it’s time to follow the dream out into the big wide world… starting here!

It’s been a full year since our Smithsonian Folkways record Let Love Be Your Guide was released and three full years since we moved to Baltimore.
Here’s a new video to celebrate those two milestones.
A tickling song, of course. Arriba Means Up!
Thank you to everyone who showed love and support during this past year. Your enthusiasm for our music means more than we can say. You wrote to us! You booked us to perform live (and virtually)! You attended concerts! You shared the record with friends! You posted our videos! You followed us on social media! You sang our songs at schools, wherever you worship, and at home!
And thank you to everyone here in Baltimore who has made this experience rich and meaningful beyond our wildest expectations. Three years of neighborhood parties, WEAA - 88.9, farmers markets, Creative Alliance, Our Joyful Noise Baltimore, Ravens + Orioles, dog parks and trails, crabcakes, Charles Street Theater (where Dan Zanes and Friends played in 2002 - foreshadowing!), Visionary Art, the skate park, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, The Black Church Food Security Network, Dreams and Visions and so much more.
We especially want to thank our Reservoir Hill neighbors who have made us feel welcome since day one and who came together to make this video with us. We love you!
If you appreciate what we do and want to help us keep it going, please tell just one person about Dan + Claudia Zanes. Share the video! Follow us on social media! As they say, word of mouth may be the old fashioned way but it’s still the best way to help artists flourish in these wild times.
(And remember not everyone wants to be tickled. If someone says “no thank you” just find another person who’s up for it…)

Arriba Means Up! From the Smithsonian Folkways album Let Love Be Your Guidehttps://linktr.ee/danandclaudiazaneshttps://www.danandclaudia.comArriba Means Up! was written by Da...

We know we’re technically a day late with this, but it’s really a sing-along for any time of year.
We always thought that if Dion and the Belmonts were still performing, this is the kind of song they would sing. Of course they would! The message is clear and the refrain is as easy as the one in Teenager in Love…
And like many people, they would be asking, how can we possibly move forward until we’ve addressed the past?
Thank you Today With Dr. Kaye for the perfect intro and for crucial radio M-F on WEAA - 88.9 FM: The Voice of the Community.

Dan + Claudia Zanes - "Reparations is a Must (4th of July Love Song)" [Official Lyric Video] Watch the official lyric video for "Reparations is a Must (feat. Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead)" from Dan + Claudia Zanes' upcoming Smithsonian Folkways album, 'Le...

This weekend we’ll be rocking in our new home state of Maryland at the world famous Chrysalis in Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods in Columbia. Saturday, June 18th at 10am.
The show is sensory friendly, all are welcome come as you are.
And it’s free!
Do you have any particular songs you want to hear? Let us know…
(And of course we hope that your Juneteenth is meaningful in all the best ways).
Photo by Anna Zanes

We’ll be getting our summer vibes together this weekend in Arlington, VA at the beautiful Lubber Run Amphitheater.
Sunday, June 12th at 11am. It’s free free free, people! Please join us if you can.
Thank you to Arlington Arts and Arlington VA Public Library for inviting us to to perform…

New York State, we can’t stay away!
Join us this Sunday, May 22nd, at 3pm for an outdoor concert at the beautiful Caramoor in Katonah, NY.
Have you been there before? The place is outrageous.
This is the perfect excuse for an early summer Sunday family road-trip…and the concert is sensory friendly, come as you are.