Former
Del Fuego
Dan Zanes
has been anything but dormant since the rootsy
college rock
collective called it quits in 1990. Six years after his 1995 solo debut,
Cool Down Time
,
Zanes
discovered a way to merge his two favorite things (fatherhood and music) into a sustainable career with a series of
folk
albums for kids that has proven to be just as enjoyable for their larger counterparts. After snagging a Grammy Award in 2007 for the singalong album
Catch That Train
, ever the cultural sponge, gathered his musician friends from New York's Latino community and began work on a collection of songs from the Spanish-speaking Americas. The resulting
Nueva York!
, referred to frequently in print by
as his "pro-immigration CD," features 17 high quality songs, mostly traditional, that touch on many
Latin folk
styles like
cumbia
merengue
son
, and
bachata
.
brought in some serious muscle this time around, including
Marc Ribot
, Panamanian actress/singer
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Latin jazz
singer
Lila Downs
, Mexican rockers the
Villa-Lobos Brothers
, and Afro-Colombian roots ensemble
La Cumbiamba Eneye
, and he allows the spotlight to fall on them more times than not, resulting in a fun, all-inclusive listening experience that's a lot like sitting on a hot set of apartment steps during a summer block party. ~ James Christopher Monger