Solid State

I'm not sure if any of our regular readers have kids, but if you do, or if you perhaps just have a special bay-bay in your life that you'd like to take out for an afternoon on the town, I highly recommend this Saturday's Dan Zanes show at Higher Ground. The two afternoon matinees are actually sold out, but I did spot some tickets online, so it might be worth looking into.

Up until one year ago I worked as a nanny here in Burlington. It was a pretty kick-ass job for a pretty kick-ass family with one hell of a kick-ass baby. Isaac and I did everything together, including afternoon dance parties. Often. Preferably to The Cars. Or Johnny Cash. Isaac loved both.

His older sister, however, on more than one occasion, returned home from her mornings at preschool with her nose already turned up to my ipod.

"Can we listen to something else?" she would ask, and I would cringe, knowing that 'something else' likely referred to chirpy twerpy kids songs, not too friendly on the adult ear.

That was up until we discovered Dan Zanes. Or more specifically, his 2003 release of maritime songs, "Sea Music".

Unless you too have spent afternoons grudgingly dancing to children's voices cracking over choruses of "London Bridge is Falling Down," I can't quite express the gift that is Dan Zanes. The former member of the Del Fuegos started exploring kid's music when he and his wife had their first child. What he came up with is a refreshing simplistic style that kids and adults both love. It's fun, hard not to dance to, and never grating on the ears.

I really wanted to go to Zanes' show this weekend. In fact, I really really wanted to interview Zanes, who aside from being a pioneer in the world of bearable children's music, also started his own record label for the exact purpose of marketing it. But I will be heading down to my parents' house in Connecticut, and my little music loving friends are at their new cousin's bris in Jersey.

So will you please go and tell me how it is? Zanes will play at noon and then again at 3 PM. You might have to buy scalped tickets... but it might just be worth it.