a note from dan zanes this is the sound of a long running, raucous and sprawling musical house party. friends, dressed in their craziest clothing, were dropping in and out with instruments, plates of food and heads filled with songs. when it was cold we played inside. when the weather warmed up the party moved from the house out into the parks, gardens, yards and streets where anyone could stop by and join in.

i love this cd because it's the result of our relaxed, rollicking and completely satisfying neighborhood music making. something happens when people are together singing, laughing, eating and dancing. everything feels peaceful and everything feels possible. that's why i dream of a world filled to the brim with these parties. i hope to see you at one soon.

love,
dan

what we played:drums, tuba, electric guitar, portable pump organ, mandolin, upright bass, lap steel, jerry's percussion, classical guitar, accordion, ukulele, tenor banjo, spoons, 12-string guitar, fiddle, banjo-ukulele, harmonica, autoharp, 5-string banjo, acoustic guitar, marxaphone, clarinet, buzuq, djembe, banjo-mandolin, beatbox, saw, vox electric bass, saxophone, and trombone. is that it?

what we ate and drank: water (the forgotten nutrient), ginger beer (made according to the recipe from father goose's mother), home made pizza, bread from the mazzola bakery (turned into all kinds of sandwiches and sometimes eaten with just olive oil), spaghetti , tea (a whole pantry full of choices ), organic corn chips, raw almonds, tacos from home made tortillas and chocolate chip cookies.

what kind of songs we played: dance songs (down in the valley, tennessee wig walk, hop up ladies, queremos bailar, old joe clark,). sing along songs (waltzing matilda, wabash cannonball, jamaica farewell, we shall not be moved). funny songs (washington at valley forge, how do you do?, shining star), emotional songs (surrounded by friendship, a place for us), a west indian counting song, a japanese instrumental, and a few others concerning the natural world.

what we wore: well, it was winter and that would make clothing on the bulky side. stripes, plaids, loud colors, baggy, wooly, layered (and shed layers hanging on the back of every available chair). pants with skirts. stripes with more stripes. stripes with plaids. striped elephant jeans. striped sailor's shirts. backpacks thrown everywhere. i'm still dreaming about a glow-in-the-dark shirt but it's mentioned in a song. there was certainly a lot of talk about thrift shops (anytime we went out to play a show we looked for some).