[3] The Del Fuegos played in lofts, bars, warehouses, small art galleries, clubs, barns, college dining halls, fraternity houses, gymnasiums, auditoriums, and, finally, big theaters.

[citation needed] With the Del Fuegos, Zanes made several records – The Longest Day (1984), Boston, Mass (1985), Stand Up (1987), Smoking in the Fields (1989) – and had a hit single, Don't Run Wild.

This informal group became the Wonderland String Band, which played at parks and parties and recorded a tape of songs at Zanes' home.

So, he added a small number of women to his band, renamed it the Rocket Ship Revue, and began making a full-length homemade album, enlisting the help of some people he had met when he was a Del Fuego – Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, and Simon Kirke, the drummer for Bad Company.

(2002), features collaborations with Aimee Mann, Lou Reed, John Doe, Dar Williams, and other established musicians.

The fourth album in the family series is House Party (2003),[6] a rambunctious 20-song collection with a diverse instrumentation that, in addition to the usual guitars, banjos, upright bass and drums, includes such instruments as violin, tuba, accordion, trombone, pump organ, djembe and saw.

Other contributing artists to the album included Billy Bragg, Chuck D, Aloe Blacc, Valerie June, Memphis Jelks, Tamar-kali, and Sonia de los Santos.

[5] In October of that year, he and Claudia Eliaza premiered Night Train 57 , a "sensory-friendly 'folk opera'" commissioned by the Kennedy Center.

[citation needed] After the dissolution of The Del Fuegos, the couple moved to "a small town in the Catskill Mountains".