Raffi's Hipster Alter-Ego?

Henry and I have been grooving on some Dan Zanes kids records we found at the library recently. As with just about anything these days, listening to CDs usually turns into a mini-battle of wills. Hank’s obsessed with Dan’s version of Hop Up Ladies. This is (mercifully) a very nice song--good thing because we’ve been listening to it about a hundred times a day (not using hyperbole here). There always comes a point at which I finally have to tell him that’s it, that I have to turn on the radio to listen to Marketplace or something like that. Meanwhile, I’m partial to his fabulous versions of Waltzing Matilda (with Debbie Harry) and Loch Lomond (with Natalie Merchant—love her!) both of which have made me cry. It’s sometimes a feat to convince the boy to sit through these two but totally worth it.

Have to admit, I didn’t know who Dan Zanes was before stumbling on these. (I’m sure some of y’all have heard of the Del Fuegos, but I spent the eighties exiled in loserland so was not au courant…).But happy to have discovered him, as his stuff is not at all smarmy, cloying or otherwise annoying in the manner of so many kids records. So far, the only ones we’ve found that mama can tolerate have been by Woody Guthrie and Buckwheat Zydeco. So Dan, I’d say you’re in good company.