Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell will be releasing an album, Turn Turn Turn. He has won a GRAMMY, she has been nominated for one, and both have garnered tremendous critical acclaim. Between them, they have collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Andrew Bird, Debbie Harry, Natalie Merchant, Lou Reed, Ziggy Marley, Levon Helm, Angelique Kidjo, Philip Glass, and many more. Turn Turn Turn marks their first collaborative recording which Zanes’ Festival Five Records releases August 27.
Zanes, Mitchell, and Dan Littleton (Mitchell’s partner) began playing shows together last year, and found the collaboration easy and joyful. They began planning the album this spring and gathered at Mitchell and Littleton’s home studio, recording for three days. The result is a sort of “Basement Tapes for kids,” something The Village Voice called an early Dan Zanes & Friends album that describes Turn Turn Turn even better.
Turn Turn Turn sounds like a natural, almost effortless meeting of sympathetic sensibilities, rather than the execution of a concept. Zanes describes the song selection process as almost telepathic; he, Mitchell and Littleton had many of the same tunes in mind. In addition to five new Zanes originals, including “Now Let’s Dance,” “Shine,” and “Coney Island Avenue,” as well as “Honey Bee” co-written by Mitchell and her sister-in-law Anna Padgett, the album includes the traditional “Raccoon and Possum,” adapted from Ruth Crawford Seeger as well as classics from the American folk cannon such as “Sail Away Ladies,” “My Creole Belle,” “Wim Wam Waddle,” and “Train Is A Coming,” plus the 19th Century revival hymn “When I Get Home,” and “So Glad I’m Here,” a song from the Georgia Sea Islands.
A highlight, to be sure, is “Turn Turn Turn,” a song written by Pete Seeger a half century ago. This version includes recently unearthed additional lyrics (not in the Seeger original or the Byrds hit), written specifically for children by Pete’s wife, Toshi, that a friend of Mitchell’s heard at a recent Seeger performance. When Pete wrote the song, his wife Toshi suggested he write some verses for children; Pete encouraged Toshi to write them herself, and the words she wrote beautifully put in young people’s terms (“a time for quiet, a time for talk”; “a time to cry and make a fuss”; “a time to hug, a time to kiss”) the song’s central message that there is a time for everything.
Zanes and Mitchell family began their careers in 2000 and 1998, respectively, making recordings for the children in their lives, all of whom are now young adults. Zanes and Mitchell were then breaking new ground, combining rock and roll pasts—Zanes as member of the Del Fuegos, and Mitchell and Littleton in the group Ida—with handmade approaches to making music that contemporary families could enjoy and share together. They have now grown up as artists, and created a genre occupied by numerous others.
Zanes and Mitchell will tour the country with Mitchell’s band You Are My Flower, performing material from the album, throughout the year.
