Folk Comedian ? Folk Genius ? Who Loves Dan Bern ?

It can be hard to know wether or not to take contemporary folk singer, Dan Bern, seriously.

On one hand he sounds a lot like his Jewish brother Bob Dylan, on the other he takes the piss by writing ‘Talkin Woody, Bob, Bruce and Dan Blues’.

One hand he can be explicitly and bitingly political (“Bush Must Be Defeated’) and then he goes and writes a song like ‘Tiger Woods”

I got a friend whose goal in life

Was to one day go down on Madonna

That's all he wanted

That was all

To one day go down on Madonna

And when my friend was thirty-four

He got his wish in Rome one night

He got to go down on Madonna

In Rome one night in some hotel

And ever since he's been depressed

'Cause life is shit from here on in

And all our friends just shake their heads

And say, "Too soon, too soon, too soon,

He went down on Madonna too soon

Too young, too young, too soon, too soon"

When asked about his sounding like Bob Dylan, whine and all, he responded “I guess Bob Dylan was sort of the Dan Bern of the '60's".

He sings serious songs about his Lithuanian Jewish ancenstry and then calls his back-up band the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy.

Dan Bern has released 6 albums in the past 12 years and the same number of EP’s. While he may not be that well known outside of the US he will become more of a household name through his collaboration with the rock history comedy “Walk Hard” for which he wrote 16 songs.

If you only listen to one of his many songs try ‘Jerusalem’, where he discloses, on his therapists advise, to get things of his chest and finally tell the world that he is actually the messiah !

Image: Courtesy Messenger Records