Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 06/10/2008
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,
Zanes, 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
Zanes 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.
Zanes 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 Eneyé, 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, All Music Guide