Family Dance [Original recording reissued]

Dan Zanes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 30, 2002)
• Original Release Date: November 8, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Festival Five Rec.
• ASIN: B00005TT6M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,988 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #92 in Music > Indie Music > Children's Music > General

Editorial Reviews

If Bob Dylan had ever made a children's CD, it would have sounded like this. Dan Zane's album is a collaboration of bluegrass, folk, rock, foreign songs, and some his originals. The songs feature Zanes' distinctive voice and electric guitar, as well as children's voices on select songs, and acoustic guitar, harmonica, drums, accordion, bass, mandolin, banjo, tuba, lap steel, fiddle, and concertina. This is great for singing in the car or dancing around at playtime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff!, December 29, 2001

By 

Eric Anderson-Zych (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Family Dance (Audio CD)

What a fantastic album for kids, parents, and anybody who loves a blend of folk/roots/pop. The whole album is great but these tracks stand out:
- Malti and Linstead Market have a Caribbean feel to them.
- Wonder Wheel has some good pop hooks and reminds me of The Kinks "Come Dancing.
- Hokey Pokey, Water for the Elephants and Skip to My Lou let parents listen to a children's song and still enjoy it even after dozens of playings.
- All Around the Kitchen is a kid's song that rocks.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Kid-Pleaser by Zanes, May 8, 2006

By 

dephal (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Family Dance (Audio CD)

We own several of Dane Zanes' CDs, but this is the one that's currently in my car's CD player. Consequently, I've listened to it approximately a zillion times in the past month.

The good news? My 3 and 6 year olds love it, and both enjoy singing along. It hasn't driven me insane yet, and I'm actually quite fond of "Malti" and a couple of the other songs. My 3 year old has learned to count to 10 in Spanish. The CD comes packaged in a board book, and both girls enjoy looking at the book as we drive. My older daughter has learned to properly pronounce "Edinburgh."

The bad news? I wake up in the morning and find myself humming "Fooba Wooba John" or "Yo Yo." I think these songs are permanently imprinted in my brain. A couple of the other songs are a little boring.

I think kids of most ages will enjoy this CD, and grownups won't hate it. It's not my favorite of the genre, but it makes a nice addition to our car music rotation. Oh, and if you visit Zanes' website, most of the song lyrics are posted there. I wish they were printed in the board book so the kids could read along.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Zanes saves the world from Barney and Disney, August 21, 2002

By 

Will Lingo (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family Dance (Audio CD)

I feared having a child would mean ceding the stereo to "Cartoon Monkey Love Song" and whatever other dreck Disney and other companies pass off as kids' music. Fortunately, I saw a profile in The New York Times Magazine on Zanes soon after my son was born and ordered both this album and Rocket Ship Beach. I like this one a little bit better, while my wife prefers the other, but they're both excellent.

More important, our son loves them both. He's been listening to them since he was six months old, and he's gone from sitting on the floor clapping along to dancing around and bouncing up and down with the beat. I'm sure he'll be singing along soon. I'd say "Thrift Shop" is the best song on this disc, but they're all good, and the contributions of Father Goose on both of Zanes' albums are outstanding.

Another interesting note: Donald Saaf, the outstanding illustrator of children's books (check out "Pushkin Meets the Bundle" if you don't already have it), not only provides art for both of these discs, but he sings on both as well.