Dan Zanes

Sold-out all-ages shows have always been a good indicator of an artist’s success-perhaps even more so than a chart-topping album. The fact that Dan Zanes is an ex-indie rocker who’s won a Grammy Award is of little importance to the truest fans of his playful, intelligent, folk-world music-children. Zanes’s latest, The Welcome Table, is a compilation of new and previously issued songs of family music made by Zanes to support the New Sanctuary Movement, and contains traditional gospel songs, Jewish tunes, Spanish folk numbers, and American standards. Still, the album works as a unified piece thanks to the similar spirit, sounds, and melodies of each track. Here, Zanes reminds us we are all immigrants to this land, in turn crafting an absolutely charming collection of songs about inspiration, mystery, and good times.