Comments on: Dan Zanes – Night Time!

By: bill kirkland

bill kirkland — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:42:27 +0000

We like DZ – saw him at a concert for kids, Jamarama. BUT, another kids artist stole the show. Buck Howdy is our family’s new favorite. Don’t let the fact that he’s a “cowboy” scare you. His music is delightful, memorable, funny and singable.

Bill Kirkland

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:15:22 +0000

We love Dan Zanes! His show was my daughter’s first “rock concert”. We had a blast both kids and parents. He also has a cd that is more adult oriented called “Parades and Panoramas” which is fabulous and a favorite of my now, 22 month old daughter. We just got “Catch that Train” a week ago and is played no less then 3 times a day in it’s entirety! And we haven’t gone mad yet!

Another good selection similar to this type of music that the whole family can listen to is “Mermaid Avenue” by Billy Bragg and Wilco and the “Oh Brother, where art thou?” soundtrack.

We want our child to grow up listening to songs with musicality and learning to love music for what it is, not as a learning tool that beats into her head numbers, letters and dinosaurs.

By: meryl

meryl — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:03:14 +0000

Just read this and went and bought Catch that Train from Itunes. We’ll trial it tonight but I really like it already. It has a version of ‘Loch Lomond’ on it ‘you take the high road and I’ll take the low road…’. Good value too with heaps of songs. I think Rohan will be asleep before he yells out to change the CD.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:24:48 +0000

We have all of Dan Zane’s CDs except his most recent. Like Kate, Night Time! is neither my or my eldest’s favorite. That would be either Family Dance or Rocket Ship Beach. I’d also recommend his concert DVD. My daughter loves to Dance around the living room while watching it.

As for the CD packaging being hard on the CDs, we’ve had most of ours for about two years and they all play like new. You’re house policy is a fabulous idea though and one I may adopt.

Aside: I thought Ring Around the Rosie was about the plague.

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:39:00 +0000

Dan Zanes is fantastic. He used to be the singer for the Del Fuegos, and now he’s my 3 yo son’s favorite guy to rock out to, with Ralph’s World coming in as a distant second. The whole family likes him. I like that the songs don’t sound soo kiddy and saccharin I want to fold my ears over.

By: Mama Urchin

Mama Urchin — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 02:29:24 +0000

We like Smile from NightTime, which incidentally has a video that’s played on Noggin here in the US (and is available on their website). We also enjoy other Dan Zanes music like Hello from Rocket Ship Beach. Great tip about the cd copying.

By: kate

kate — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 01:00:10 +0000

I loooooooove Dan Zanes! I was going to write you all about him. Night time isn’t my favorite of his CDs though. I love House Party. I got Family Dance, Rocket Ship Beach and his new release (can’t remember the name) more recently so I’m not as fond of them yet. About “Pay me my money down”: I had thought the same thing when I first heard it but it’s not the worst thing we sing to our kids. Ring around the rosy is about dying of scarlet fever. And my French husband sings a song about a boat that’s lost and doesn’t have enough food. One of the verses goes “We’ll draw straws to see who’s eaten first. It’s the small one we’ll eat first.” Thanks to you all for such a great site.

By: Penni

Penni — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 00:30:40 +0000

Thanks for the review, sounds great.
We’ve got another cd in this house that is very popular For the kids
Notable songs are Rainbow Connection by Sarah Maclachlan and The La La LA Song by Barenaked Ladies, plus a beautiful lullaby by Tom Waits and a very groovy version of Twinkle Twinkle.
It’s another ‘family album’ – I’ve been known to listen to parts of it on kidless days. I think it’s for older kids but my 3 year old relates well to a lot of the music.

By: amy

amy — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 23:27:01 +0000

We recently caught a video of his on Playhouse Disney and were immediately addicted. Currently waiting for our copy to arrive from Amazon.