By Alan Light
Special to MSN Music

"Why does it always have to be so segregated?" asks Dan Zanes. "Why is it that kids have their music and adults have theirs? Can't we find a middle ground that we can all enjoy?"

New Hampshire-born, Brooklyn-based Zanes spent the first part of his career as a member of the roots-rockers the Del Fuegos, who Rolling Stone named best new band of 1984. After the birth of his daughter, Anna, he shifted gears and reinvented himself as a creator of music for the whole family. In the past 10 years, Zanes has released eight CDs of his own folk-based, cross-cultural spin on children's and traditional songs, including 2007's Grammy-winning "Catch That Train" and last year's Spanish-themed "Nueva York!."

His latest DVD, "The Fine Friends Are Here," has just been released; filmed live in his home borough, it's a summary of his past few projects, and demonstrates the rocking, ramshackle joy of his road-burnished band (as well as his signature rooster-plume hair and colorful suits). Next month, Zanes follows with a new album, titled "76 Trombones," in which he turns his attention to classic songs from Broadway shows. The selections, all owned by Paul McCartney's MPL Music Publishing (who approached Zanes with the idea), include: "Hello Dolly," featuring guest Carol Channing; "Tomorrow, Manana," from "Annie"; and Matthew Broderick joining in for "Before the Parade Passes By."

"After our session," says Zanes, "Carol Channing told me that I remind her of Louis Armstrong. I felt so hip! And then, about 15 minutes later, her husband came out and said, 'You know who he reminds me of? Barry Manilow!'"

MSN Music: What was the biggest adjustment between playing in a rock band and playing music for kids?

Dan Zanes: I'd say the biggest adjustment was having to get up earlier. The spirit of the audience and of this music is really so similar to what it felt like in the early days of the Del Fuegos. It was so communal; we didn't consider it a gig if people didn't dance, and that's what we have now. The audience is such a big part of things, and the sense that we're all in it together.

Doing this, I really rediscovered the reasons for playing music. As the Del Fuegos got bigger, it got so disconnected from those things, and so much of the life went out of it. So I spent a lot of time going to see bluegrass, to hear music in churches, to dances in Jamaica, places were the music is connected to the people supporting it and there's no wall separating the music makers from the audience. After that, I thought I'd never go back to that self-centered pop life. I didn't know where I'd end up, though, until my daughter was born.

Did it surprise you that all of that led to music for kids?

It did surprise me. I made this cassette of what I thought all-ages music would be, to give out to families in the neighborhood. I had gone to Tower Records and looked for some 21st century version of the old Folkways family music albums, the stuff by Leadbelly and Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. First of all, I couldn't even find those records, they were so hidden away. And then everything I did hear was so corporate. There is plenty of great family music out there that I found: there's that great Jerry Garcia and David Grisman record, Tom Chapin, everything Ella Jenkins does is great. But I wasn't hearing the sound I had in my head.

I was making a solo record, and really nobody cared. They wanted more of this cassette that I made on a little eight-track at home. I was really happy doing that stuff. I was better at it. It was more fun. So it was like: Should I keep singing songs about old girlfriends and drinking, or should I do something I really like that other people were also liking?

So now you've come all the way around to recording Broadway songs. How did this project come about? It seems like a slightly different direction for you.

Sir Paul's company owns the publishing to a lot of Broadway songs. They called me and asked if I would want to do something with those. At first I thought, no way; what we do won't sound anything like Broadway, it will just come out sounding like weird folk music. But they said, no, we want that. So I started looking at the catalog and thinking: Can we make these songs emotional? Is there an emotional core to them? And we found tons of emotion in those songs. I guess the question for me is always: Can we put our hearts into it? Everything we put our hands on, we put our own spin on.

Your recent albums have all been built around themes: trains, spirituals. How did something like the "Nueva York!" project develop in your mind?

I was thinking about how we really are turning into a bilingual community, and I was learning Spanish and getting excited by that. And also, how ugly the immigration conversation was getting. There was kind of a political agenda with that one. Having grown up in the white monoculture of New Hampshire, I could imagine what it was like for a kid in Nebraska, being told that all these illegal Mexicans are coming in and taking over, how scary that could sound if you're little. So I wanted to offer the other side, to show that we're all hanging out in New York, singing each other's songs, eating food, having a party. So there was that agenda, but you always gotta keep the fun in it, too.

That record was actually really important in my household because it was something my son and his baby sitter, who is from Colombia, could listen to and sing together.

I have heard that a lot, and it really is the ultimate compliment. The name of the game is shared experience, when music can pull us together. Though I guess the ultimate compliment would really be if your son and his baby sitter formed a band together.

Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing.