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For one thing, it’s sad to note that in September 2025, just after The Rock Is Still Rollin’ recording sessions were completed, Zan Zone’s long time lead-singer Phillip Dessinger passed away. In light of such sad news, Phil’s vocal contributions to The Rock Is Still Rollin’ are quite noteworthy, leaving one to ponder who will be able to fill his estimable shoes. Returning from Start Where You Stand are Angela Watson (vocals) and the talented rhythm section of Marko Djordjevic (drums, vocals) and Saadi Zain (bass, vocals). A new name added to the Zan Zone lineup of musicians, performing on The Rock Is Still Rollin’, Adrienne McKay adds her keyboards and backing vocals to the album while a number of other guest musicians bring in some vital new sounds to the album, including a 4-piece string section, additional vocalist Emily Isaac and more. Superbly produced by Zan Burnham and Chris Benham, The Rock Is Still Rollin’ features some of the most diverse and colorful songs in the Zan Zone repertoire. The album kicks off with the nearly 9-minute “Born To Roll”. A six-part rock instrumental suite filled with grandeur and stimulating tension, the “Born To Roll” suite shows off the progressive fusion aspect of Zan Zone and overall is a great showcase for both Zan’s electric guitar expertise and the keyboards of newcomer Ms. Adrienne McKay. Firing on all cylinders without vocals, “Born To Roll” shows off another side of Zan Zone that will satisfy prog-rock and fusion fans. Despite having passed away on September 1st 2025, on track two, “Have Some Fun Tonight”, Phil Dessinger confirms why he is/was one of the most expressive lead singers in recent memory. With Zan channeling the spirit of Chuck Berry’s classic rock & roll guitar style, the track combines vocal expertise of both Phil and Angela Watson with the added kick being Zan’s Chuck Berry / Keith Richards guitar styles. Overall, the song is a fun-filled romp. Penned by longtime Zan Zone confidant Jera Denny way back in 1988, “Dog Days” is another catchy 1960s flavored track combining the dual vocals of Angela Watson and Zan. Mixing rock and psychedelia with traced Indian music motifs, Zan describes the song as “female empowerment brought to the forefront.” There are also elements of folk-rock in the mix yet, with the harder edges, Jera’s composition is a highlight of The Rock Is Still Rollin’.
“Mama Was A Train Wreck” is where the rubber meets the road in the Zan Zone catalog. A zealous musicologist, Zan has a knack for digging out Zan Zone related rarities and on The Rock Is Still Rollin’ the band revives this back number written in 2013 by Karen Hudson. A train-of-thought track filled with Beatle-esque “Come Together” vibes and a little Motown groove, the tune is a great showcase for Zan’s slide guitar, Adrienne’s organ and Angela’s smokin’ R&B flavored vocals, “Mama” is a left field hit out of the blues that crosses genres like a possessed roadrunner. Another powerful hit is “Ready To Say Goodbye”. The track is a good example why Zan Burnham is best described as a triple threat – a world class singer-songwriter, guitar ace and a confident performer / bandleader. Another example of the vocal finesse Phil Dessinger brought to Zan Zone is apparent on track 8 “Friends”. A superb showcase for Phil’s lead vocals, this near orchestral pop classic, composed by Zan Burnham is reminiscent of Todd Rundgren’s stirring ballads and overall the song has a solid NYC vibe to it. “Friends” is further enhanced by the saxophone of Keith Gurland. “She Left Me” is a teary-eyed look back at a long lost relationship that hit the ropes. Compared to most of the album, “She Left Me” is Zan alone on voice and guitar, with just the right touch of reverb. This song also features the string quartet mentioned in the album liner notes. The CD booklet includes liner notes and complete lyrics and discography information. Perhaps the song lyrics offer a tribute to Zan’s late wife, yet it’s also a universal vibe of all doomed relationships where we live through our memories. Zan digs out another Zan Zone curio; this one from 2009. “That Flame” is a stellar showcase for Angela Watson, who brings out the vocals in a confident, strong performance. A hopeful song with universal lyrics given a new lease on life with a new vocal, the song further relates a Bob Dylan influence, enhanced by the harmonica of Ernesto Gomez.
To say Phil Dessinger’s great vocal command will be missed is an understatement. Yet, at least on record, Phil goes out with a bang on the album closer “Rockin’ n’ Rollin On Down The Road”. Angela and Phil take the song to Rock ‘n’ Roll heaven. There’s a trace of foreboding in the lyrics as Zan Zone rolls into the rock ‘n’ roll sunset as Phil croons, “Let me say goodbye, can’t stay forever, It makes me sigh, we’ve been so happy together, But you know I must be on my way…” Despite Phil Dessinger’s departure, there’s a newfound sense of accomplishment on The Rock Is Still Rollin’. Angela’s vocals have steadily improved since her debut on 2022’s Start Where You Stand and the inclusion of Adrienne McKay’s keyboards are welcoming as are the guest appearances by a number of guest musicians. Zan Zone devotees and fans of their vintage, classic new NYC rock and pop sounds will eat up the smorgasbord variety of tracks on The Rock Is Still Rollin’. After the storms, the future seems bright once again for Brooklyn’s best band Zan Zone.
mwe3.com presents the 2026 interview with ZAN: The most obvious reason why Zan Zone has made a tribute to the first three decades of Rock ‘n’ Roll is because it was a time when some of the best music ever created was made. It was a time when a new style, or congregation of styles came together to invent a heretofore undefined approach to music in absolutely the best way. It was a time when music was perceived as something of an oracle, something that truly expressed a plethora of feelings and attitudes in a way that previously, in music, had not been done before. It was a time when musicians, singers, and songwriters were recognized for the expression of the incredible beauty, joy, and truth in new music that they were making. It was a time when there was incredible opportunity in the music business. It was a time when audiences were devoted to music and those who created it. It was just one of the most amazing times in the history of the culture of human beings. It also has influenced Zan Zone as much as anyone. When we went looking through our catalogs of unrecorded songs, or songs that could use a better version, we decided to focus, generally, on the sounds, styles and influences of those decades. Yes, our album starts with a tribute to Prog-Rock. It certainly is influenced by the boundary-breaking keyboard, guitar, and drum bands of the 1960s and 1970s. There was some great music made in that style and, while we were looking to present songs in many of the styles that were popular in those decades, we certainly wanted to include a Prog-Rock example, particularly because Zan Zone has some truly excellent musicians in the band, and we think we did a respectful job in replicating a good deal of the Prog-Rock approach to Rock n’ Roll music. “Born To Roll”, itself, has multiple musical sections. This compositional technique is common in many Prog-Rock songs, and “Born To Roll” is no different. The beginning and ending section, “Roll Call”, was actually a musical motif that I came up with as a teenager! All these years I’ve had it in my head, and it is simply wonderful to have given it a home at last. Both Marko - truly one of the world’s great drummers - and Adrienne contributed to the song’s creation and they both do a helluva job.
When she eventually decided to migrate to the USA, which, of course, is the birthplace of jazz music, she had to have a shipping container custom made for her organ. It cost around $5000 for the container, and more to ship it to America. Now that’s dedication! Currently she is practicing with Zan Zone and will be playing shows with the band as a full-fledged member. She also plays some piano, but un-typically, she does not play every keyboard that exists. She’s a tried and true organist who doubles on the piano. She knows and loves HER instrument, and is not just trying to follow trends, or be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to keyboards. mwe3: The production and engineering on The Rock Is Still Rollin’ by Zan and Chris Benham is excellent. How did you meet Chris and is this the first time working with him? What were some of the challenges of co-producing and engineering the album? Tell us where and when it was recorded. You used multiple studios. Where in Brooklyn did you record?
I just searched the internet, look at a few studios on line, and chose Chris’s studio, Big Orange Sheep, which seemed awesome - and it was! Perhaps the biggest challenge of recording this album dates back to the pandemic period. Early that summer, Chris’s landlord, Brooklyn’s Industry City, decided to triple his rent at a time when he couldn’t even be open! Nice… Kill the landlord! The rent is too damn high! Chris tried his best to keep BOS going, but by the summer of 2024 he had to abandon his studio. That was a drag for all. Chris eventually found a partner, and they opened a new and still excellent, albeit smaller, studio in Manhattan. It’s called Audio Confidential. mwe3: “Have Some Fun Tonight” sounds like the Beach Boys. And of course the ‘Boys used Chuck Berry as a starting point with “Surfin’ USA”. What about Brian Wilson passing last year? That was a tough one. I guess we should all be grateful for Brian, initiating the West Coast pop-rock scene with the rootsy R&B Chuck Berry sound and the way it caught on both the West Coast and in the Chicago and New York areas. How big an influence was Chuck and Brian on you, especially when we were growing up those influences were key. ZAN: Yeah. Well like a lot of people, no doubt, I love The Beach Boys music. While it’s hard to recall exactly what I recall (!), and I was too young to catch their early output, I do seem to remember really liking “Sloop John B” as a wee lad. Little by little, more and more of their songs seeped into my consciousness. I remember being blown away by “Good Vibrations”, and I eventually picked up on all of their songs. To this day, I still love “Help Me Rhonda”, “God Only Knows”, “In My Room”… I could go on. But there are so many great songs in the Beach Boys’ canon. And yeah, they clearly had a major Chuck Berry influence. I suppose that as I gravitated to the guitar, that “Johnny B Goode” was an early favorite, as was “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music”, and “Roll Over Beethoven”. “Memphis” was really cool, too. But getting back to the “Boys”, certainly, their incredible group singing and harmonies has always been a big influence on Zan Zone’s music. They were great. Yeah… it was sad to see Brian go, but he surely had a good run.
ZAN: It’s devastating that Phil died. While we worked on and off over the years, he really was a musical partner and a musical comrade-in-arms… a confrère. I always thought that, especially for someone who only sang, that he had an incredible sense of music. He was also a great lyricist and he came up with some great melodies, too. I really valued his observations more than just about anyone I ever knew. He is missed. mwe3: “Dog Days” is a song written by long time Zan Zone confidant Jera Denny back in late 1980s. Tell us about that song and with The Rock Is Still Rollin’ is this its first appearance on record? Tell us how you met Jera all those years ago. Does that song kind of introduce the later 1960s psychedelic rock sound in your tribute to the first three decades of rock? ZAN: I met Jera Denny through an ad in New York’s sadly defunct Village Voice. They had a large classified ad section where musicians could reach out to other musicians. We hit it off immediately, and she played in Zan Zone V.2 for a couple of years before it fell apart. But while we were together, we played a few of her excellent songs, among them being this one, “Dog Days”. Over the next eight years or so, we kept in touch and I discovered that she is an amazing artist and graphic artist. I think the five albums and one EP she’s done the art for are all works of art... way above what most bands have in my opinion. When the theme for this new album was decided upon, I remembered her song, “Dog Days”, and I put it into a kind of late 1960’s vibe, bordering on the hard rock of that period, as well as adding in a sitar-like sound. We think it came out great and it was decided that we’d feature it as our first single. Interestingly, our keyboardist’s seven-year-old son walks around their apartment occasionally singing lines from this song! If that doesn’t indicate a hit, I don’t know what does. mwe3: How about “Double Life”? You wrote that fairly recently with Phil. I said it sounds like a “Live And Let Die” vibe, even though it’s about the hard lives of rock and rollers who suffer for their art. Was that song was recently written? How did you work on that track with Phil and how about other tracks you composed with Phil? How did you work with him? Words / Music ala Lennon and McCartney?
There was no set way we wrote songs together, though usually he’d have a lyric and then I’d put music to it, or I’d write something and then he’d add to it. I’m not sure exactly how many songs we wrote together but it was a dozen or two. I always felt like we definitely complimented each other which you don’t always get with just anyone you try to write with. mwe3: “Hard To Get” is another great showcase for Phil’s vocals. It has a long history that you wrote it with Phil back in the 1980s? Is that right? Is this its first appearance. There’s some great sax on that track. When did you record this version? The booklet says 1985. Does it have a 1980s vibe? ZAN: “Hard To Get” was a pretty early song for us, though Phil really just wrote the lyrics to the second verse. Over the years I’ve done a bunch of versions of this song. I have a fantasy of rounding them all up and doing a whole album of them! That would be fun. The sax is played by Keith Gurland, who’s an amazingly great player and we are so lucky to be able to work with him. I hope Zan Zone can get enough traction with gigging that we can include him in our live shows. But this version is brand new. I suppose it has a little Billy Joel vibe, but also a bit of that 1950s to early 1960s R’n’R feel that was big back then. mwe3: “Mama Was A Train Wreck” has a really swampy sound. I thought it had a kind of “Come Together” vibe with its own set of ambiguous lyrics. It also has a kind of R&B / gospel groove to it. What’s the history with “Mama”? Tell us about the songowriter Karen what did she think of your new version here? Either way it’s a stunning showcase for Angela Watson’s vocals. I saw a page on Facebook for Karen from Bethpage. What does the song mean to you in the scheme of Zan Zone’s music? ZAN: For many years, I had a day-job in the New York film industry, working on movies, TV shows, commercials, and music videos. A friend of mine in the business told me for years that I should meet her friend Karen Hudson. She said that Karen was just like me - a real songwriter and musical performer. One day, in 2016, out-of-the-blue, I was on a job, and met a woman, Karen, I’d never seen her before. After a couple of hours of working with her, music came up and lo and behold, it was Karen Hudson! Karen was working as what we’d call a day-player in the film business - someone who’s not a regular, but who has picked up extra work in the business. There used to be a lot of that in the NY film business, especially about 2003 through 2019. Now, the business is off a good 40% in NY and there’s not so much day-playing anymore. I left in 2022 as the business was floundering. Anyway, Karen had released an album, Sonic Bloom, in 2013, and she gave me a copy. I loved the album! There are lots of excellent songs on it. Among the best songs was a rather fast tempo, dark number called “Mama Was A Train Wreck”. By the way... there’s also a video of her version on YouTube. (See: karenhudson.com) I was struck by the dark lyric and asked Karen what inspired it. She said that literally, it was about her parents, and that she had had a very difficult childhood, which inspired the song.
I also thought that our singer, Angela Watson, would sound great on Mama. And Wow! She killed it! Phil was there in the studio the day she sang it, and Angela just blew our minds. She hits a high A above high C. Not many singers can do that, and overall, she just kills on the song. She reminds me a bit of Aretha Franklin on this one. To me, this is another perfect companion to the overall theme of this new album. Karen loves this version and gave us her complete approval regarding the many changes we made - the slow tempo, a sort of bridge, we dropped a verse - but it all works! smwe3: “Ready To Say Goodbye” features Zan on vocals. When was that song written? It sounds wholly original so what era of music would you say influences that song? Was that song intended for Phil, even so you did a great job on lead vocals. Was there an intended target in the lyrics? You hit the bullseye with that song Zan! ZAN: Hey thanks! That song was written in 2023 about the impending, potential breakup of me and my girlfriend at that time. I feel that the music is kind of R’n’B influenced rock that has its feet in the 1970s - though it could almost come from any era, say, post mid-1960s. I had thought of having Phil sing it, but it is kind of a subtle vocal which would take a while to get down. One night, while the recording was in its infancy, I decided to do what we call a scratch vocal. I was having a bit of fun that night, and drank like three beers while I recorded the lead vocal. And it came out great! Hot tip for singers: if you need something extra - drink beer! (lol) The eventual breakup with my girlfriend was hard, and what I think are kind of Dylanesque lyrics were triggered from reading an article about how none of us ever wants to let go of things we love. I read that and spent the next 24 hours obsessed with writing this song. And yeah… I think it came out great. mwe3: Both “Friends” and “She Left Me” are kind of similar deep thought songs about lost love and times gone by. Zan wrote those songs? Are they new songs or past catalog classics? Phil’s voice is strong. How soon before he died did he do his vocal? The engineering on “She Left Me” with the strings is brilliant. What was it like recording with the strings? It’s amazing how cool real strings still sound like.
And oh yeah like WOW! Both of these songs have a string quartet on them. It was amazing to do that! I’d love to do more work with real strings. Ersatz keyboard strings pale in comparison. There is nothing like real strings on a song. It’s an incredible amount of work, however. I have such respect for orchestrators now. Nelson Riddle was a god! Of course, there’ve been many, many great orchestrators in the past, say eighty years. The Beatles made excellent use of strings, for instance, though they had George Martin around to do the heavy lifting! mwe3: “That Flame” is from an earlier Zan Zone album called Time & Materials. It’s perfect for Angela. I call it a Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan style folk rock influence and tell us about the harmonica by Ernesto Gomez. It has a great sound. What made you want to upgrade it? What inspired that track? Angela’s voice is great on it. ZAN: Thanks! I was never totally satisfied with the version of “That Flame” on my 2009 album, Time And Materials. This is our candidate for a Folk-Rock song on the new album. I really enjoy tweaking songs… for years. I’m not the only one. Paul Simon added an extra verse to his great song, “The Boxer”, years after it came out on the Bridge Over Troubled Waters album, and Leonard Cohen spent years reworking “Hallelujah”, after he’d initially recorded and released it. I think all great writers occasionally re-think their songs, especially the lyrics, and I certainly have with “That Flame”. But also, having such an incredible singer as Angela on this number just made it rise to an unbelievable place. I think it’s one of my best songs, and we’re planning to do a video for it as the year goes on. And as far as Ernesto Gomez is concerned, I had been thinking that a harmonica would sound really good on this song. In the late autumn of 2023, I was attending the Brooklyn Folk Festival, ostensibly, to see the great old time folkie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. However, I just happened to catch the end of one of the earlier acts and in that band was this really excellent harmonica player. I later did some research online and was able to get some kind of info on him, and I reached out. Amazingly, it took months for anyone to get back to me, but eventually, someone who monitored the site did contact me, apologizing profusely that he rarely checked this site. But he was able to get a hold of Ernesto, and eventually he came over to my studio, like a year after I’d first seen him, and we recorded him for the track. I remember that when he did the solo, he made four passes. The first three were pretty good, but the fourth was amazing! I recall listening as he was recording that take and thinking - Praying! - Dear God, please don’t let anything go wrong with this take because this is the one! And, of course, the whole thing came out great. What a joy.
ZAN: I think this would be an excellent song for jazz radio stations to play. I kind of molded the song as a cross between “Bluesette” by Toots Thielemans, and John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things”. I don’t know that it necessarily has a New York vibe - it’s for everywhere! I see it as a somewhat gentle, jaunty number that just makes you feel happy, like you’re walking down the street with a skip in your step, and whistling this tune. Keith Gurland played a great saxophone on it! It took a while to get the balance between the guitars and the sax, but eventually it all came together. I have always liked instrumentals and while I don’t have any songs, that I can recall right now, quite like this one, I hope to continue recording instrumentals of one sort or another. Adrienne’s piano and Saadi’s upright bass also really help make this recording great. mwe3: Of course the closing track “Rockin ‘n’ Rollin On Down The Road” is another highlight. Tell us about the intro with the live audience… Did early Zan Zone ever get to play at CBGB? It had a lot of ambience that early CBGB’s did. For a grungy little place, lots of great music got heard there. Then there’s also a splice around the 40 second mark (key change?). And how about that crazy ending? Then does the lyrics foretell Phil’s passing? He sang them. Then the audience goes wild at the end. Seems like the whole thing is damn near prophetic. Let me say good bye can’t stay forever, It makes me sigh, we’ve been so happy together, But you know I must be on my way...
The splice comes from wanting to do this song with my current band and with a higher quality studio sound. After much trial and error, we played along with the live track to get the feel. The original recording sped up quite a bit in the original bridge, but we found a way to make it work. It’s pretty funny and I think no one would know - unless they read your website! - but that’s how we did this. Back in the day, we used to tune down a half step, which a lot of people do, but here, after the initial run-through of the chord progression, and after the splice, my current band modulates up to standard tuning. The song is like 25 years old, so it certainly doesn’t foretell of Phil’s passing. I do, however, hope it’s prophetic in that I want more audiences to enjoy and scream about this song. It always has gone over well, and it’s a great song to end a show with... perfect, really. We’ll be Rockin’ on down… mwe3: How many guitars did you play on The Rock Is Still Rollin’? I’m surprised you don’t have a guitar endorsement deal. What are your favorite guitars and what were your go-to guitars? Do you remember your first guitar(s)? I had a Kay electric back in 1967 when I was 13. ZAN: I probably used four electric guitars, and three acoustics, and three amplifiers. I have been fortunate to acquire a number of guitars over the years and the best ones sure come in handy when I’m recording. The guitars I use the most are probably a couple of Andersons. Tom Anderson is a boutique builder in California and his guitars are amazing. My first guitar? Ha! My first was a Kay as well! I bought it from a classmate when I was eleven, for eleven bucks! Such symmetry. And... it was horrible! Almost unplayable. The steel strings were about a quarter of an inch above the fretboard at the nut. Ouch! I remember getting it home and thinking that any of my favorite guitarists could come over and play it. Not!
Of course, at eleven, I had no idea what Hanky Panky meant! And yeah, I’d consider an endorsement deal from the “right” manufacturer! Tom?… mwe3: Even in this post-pandemic era, when there’s still so much distrust on both sides, Zan Zone puts out its most accomplished album ever. I know everyone is still in shock about what’s been happening and what has happened these past five years, can music still save the world and where do we go from here? ZAN: Great questions. Since 2020, everything’s changed. What’s the old axiom? Change is inevitable. Still, there’s underlying themes that are the foundation of all of our lives, and music is one of our greatest accomplishments we’ve made as a species. As I quote in my on-line essay about this album: Albert Einstein said: “I get the most joy in life out of music.” Confucius considered that: “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” And Louis Armstrong simply stated that: “Music is life itself.” All true! Music is one of the pillars that uphold our beliefs in ourselves and in our very existence. It can save the world if people open up their eyes and ears. Of course, music has been kicked down the stairs by the loss of physical sales. And AI has been a looming threat, though just this month, The Supreme Court let a lower court ruling stand that AI Music is NOT copyrightable. Ha! The bastards can’t make as much money from it as they thought! Really, it’s all fake. This is a huge development.
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Following the triumph of 2019’s It’s Only Natural and 2022’s Start Where You Stand, Brooklyn’s best Rock & Roll band Zan Zone is back with their most diverse and intriguing album yet. The 2026 CD release of The Rock Is Still Rollin’ features a number of newly penned compositions from Zan Zone’s creator and guitar maestro Zan Burnham. It’s the same Zan Zone we’ve come to know and love yet there are some new chapters added to the mix.
The harder rockin’ aspects of the Zan Zone sound are perfected on both “Double Life” and “Hard To Get”. Both are superb showcases for lead vocalist Phil Dessinger. A rock diatribe, written in 2025 and credited as a Dessinger / Burnham composition, the track exposes the double life of a musician trapped in a 9 to 5 job while living for “rockin’ under the lights”. “Double Life” has a cutting edge to it and it almost sounds perfect for a James Bond soundtrack. Penned by Phil and Zan in 1985, “Hard To Get” is revived as a full-bodied Zan Zone classic, the subject matter exposing the foibles and misconceptions of stuck relationships.
That underrated instrumental prog-rock side of Zan Zone was fully explored on the lead off track and yet another instrumental side is fleshed out again on the NYC vibes of track 11, “Happy Go Lucky”. Sax master Keith Gurland echoes the late ‘70s spirit of the late great David Sanborn and Zan rises to the occasion once again on a track that is bound to surprise and delight long-time Zan Zoners.
mwe3: What gave you the idea to make the album a self-styled tribute to the first three decades of rock and roll? Seems like there’s that lead off tribute to prog-rock, the way it was suggested by Yes and Argent and keyboard/guitar based bands at the end of the 1960s. It’s a good instrumental showcase for your guitar and Adrienne’s keyboards. Tell us something more about the 8-part “Born To Roll” suite, and also tell us how you met Adrienne for her debut with Zan Zone. You said she’s from New Zealand and you meet her in Brooklyn? What keyboards does she play on The Rock Is Still Rollin’ and is Adrienne a full-fledged member of Zan Zone now? 
ZAN: Chris was the engineer on the previous Zan Zone Album, Start Where You Stand. I met Chris in 2019 when I was looking for a new recording Studio in Brooklyn. 
mwe3: Speaking of musicians passing away, Phillip Dessinger nonetheless does a great job on “Have Some Fun Tonight”. In fact, he sounds pretty darn good on all of The Rock Is Still Rollin’. 
ZAN: Truth be told, Phil and I wrote this a while back when he was working in construction laying out marble floors, especially with a broken up style called 'Terrazzo'.
ZAN: Yes! These are both very sad songs. I wrote both of them and I sang “She Left Me”. “Friends” started out quite a while ago, but like a lot of my work, it evolved over many years to become this very R’n’B style tune. Phil recorded it about nine months before he died. Very sad. He left us… 
mwe3: I commented that “Happy Go Lucky” makes me homesick for New York. Does it have a NYC vibe to it? Of course it does as you wrote it in New York right? lol Maybe it’s the sax playing by Keith Gurland? I like the way your guitars interact with the sax. Classic! Will there be more instrumentals like this? This track would sound great played on Jazz radio stations. 
ZAN: Yes, that intro was from a real Zan Zone live recording from the famous New York club, CBGBs in the 1990s before the location was bought by a clothing retailer as that area of Manhattan gentrified. The ending is also from the same show, though there’s also some crowd sounds mixed in from an additional gig at the also famous club that still stands, The Bitter End. Zan Zone played at CBGBs many times back in the day.
However, the big dogs do have a monopoly in the business. The three big “Record” Companies pretty much have a lock on most of the music that gets promoted and streamed on the streaming services. It’s fucking diabolical. And way too many people are not even considering that this is going on. AND! THEY’RE ALL MISSING OUT! There’s plenty of great musicians, music, and songs out there, but too many people are willing to be spoon-fed “processed music”. It’s like eating processed food which makes you fat and sick. And it IS sick. Hopefully, things will change due to the undying love of music and the perseverance that many of us have. We will not back down. To close with a quote from the great Jimi Hendrix: “Sing on Brother, Play on drummer”...