Dan Zanes and Friends' New DVD "The Fine Friends Are Here!" Coming September 22

DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS’ NEW DVD
THE FINE FRIENDS ARE HERE!
COMING SEPTEMBER 22

PACKAGE INCLUDES BONUS 4-SONG AUDIO DISC OF
UNRELEASED ZANES TRACKS

“True children’s music, but executed with such sweet (and un-gooey!) humor, casual multiculturalism and shambling groove that you can call it your own.”—The New York Times

Grammy Award winners Dan Zanes and Friends new live concert DVD The Fine Friends Are Here! will be released September 22^nd by Festival Five Records/Razor & Tie Entertainment.

This collection of 13 Dan Zanes and Friends favorites includes three new music videos and comes with a bonus audio disc of four, new unreleased solo Zanes songs (including one with his daughter Anna!). The live concert audio will also be available via digital music retailers and danzanes.com. A portion of the proceeds from the DVD will benefit the Mario Batali Foundation, which strives to ensure all children are well read, well fed and well cared for.

The Fine Friends Are Here! is Zanes and Friends’ first DVD in over four years. The DVD showcases what the band’s trademark rollicking concerts are all about and allows kids and fans alike to participate in the wildly popular and regularly sold out experience. This concert performance of the band’s favorite songs was shot on location at The Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook, Brooklyn this past winter and features well-known songs from across the Zanes and Friends catalog including “Let’s Shake,” “Wabash Cannonball,” “El Canario” and “Catch That Train!,” among others. Two special guests join the band at the show: spoken word artist Caridad de la Luz a.k.a. La Bruja raps on “The Welcome Table” and is featured in the video for “Pollito Chicken” while break dancer David Alan a.k.a. Cyclone appears on “Jump Up” and “Walking the Dog.” The DVD also contains three new music videos for the songs “Wonder Wheel,” “Pollito Chicken” and “Night Owl.”

Zanes says of The Fine Friends Are Here!, “It was a party! I suppose we could have filmed a concert but they are becoming more like parties anyway so it felt like time to capture the perfect Brooklyn distillation of all that makes it special each time we sing and dance with each other. This is by far the most exciting version of Dan Zanes and Friends that I’ve been a part of and I’d be kicking myself every day if we didn't film the band at the peak of it's musical powers. We called on the craziest and liveliest families in our New York orbit to come squeeze into the Jalopy Theatre with us for an afternoon of merrymaking. Stirring La Bruja and Cyclone into the mix along with the decorative and cinematic eye of the Venezuela/New York production company Dancing Diablo assured that the spirit of the wild party would be created and captured once and for all.”

Drawing thousands, Zanes and Friends’ live shows, which The New York Times says “are always cause for celebration,” have elicited widespread acclaim at home and at their recent appearances in London, Australia, Spain and Bahrain. Please see below for a schedule of upcoming performances. Tour dates available HERE.

Zanes began by distributing a homemade cassette at a neighborhood park in New York City’s West Village and has since released several Parents Choice Award-winning, bestselling albums including the acclaimed album The Welcome Table: Songs of Inspiration, Mystery & Good Times and Catch That Train!, which won the 2007 Grammy for “Best Musical Album for Children.” Music videos for Zanes’ songs have aired on The Noggin Network and “Sesame Street” and are currently in rotation on The Disney Channel’s “Playhouse Disney.” Zanes has also released two limited edition ukuleles—called the dz flea and the fiesta flea—and two picture books made in collaboration with his illustrator-musician brother-in-law, Donald Saaf (Little, Brown and Company Books).

Dan Zanes and Friends are: Dan Zanes, Colin Brooks, Sonia De Los Santos, John Foti, Saskia Sunshine Lane and Elena Moon Park.

Dan Zanes and Friends’ The Fine Friends Are Here Track List:
Let’s Shake
Fine Friends
Wabash Cannonball
Water For the Elephants
Jump Up (with David Alan a.k.a. Cyclone)
Cape Cod Girls
El Canario
The Welcome Table (with Caridad de la Luz a.k.a. La Bruja)
Thrift Shop
Monkey’s Wedding
Catch That Train
Colas
Walking the Dog (with David Alan a.k.a. Cyclone)
Music Videos:
Wonder Wheel
Pollito Chicken (with Caridad de la Luz a.k.a. La Bruja)
Night Owl

Bonus CD Track List:
I’ve Just Seen A Face
Hush, Little Baby
The Bells Of Ireland
Good Night, Good Night

Dan Zanes and Friends Performances
September 11 Urbana, IL Krannert Center
September 27 Des Moines, IA Every Family Rocks!
October 3 Asbury Park, NJ Paramount Theater
October 4 Westbury, NY Capital One Bank Theatre at Westbury
October 10 Newark, NJ NJ Performing Arts Center
October 11 Roanoke, VA Shaftman Performance Hall
October 23 Amherst, MA UMass Fine Arts Center
October 24-25 Boston, MA Halloweentown