Monday, January 29, 2024

Dan Bern’s “Bible” has “a chorus that speaks to our current climate of divisiveness,” with “the kind of clever piano-rock that would make Warren Zevon smile.”

Controversial single is taken from Bern’s upcoming album “Starting Over,” arriving March 1; Remastered reissue of 2001 masterpiece New American Language out now.

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Dan Bern as photographed by Judd Irish Beadley


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Dan Bern | About

“He’s been one of my favourite songwriters and musicians for the past 28 years.” — Roger Daltrey of The Who

In addition to being a Jeopardy clue, Dan Bern has written thousands of songs, among such other notable career and personal highlights as writing songs for the Judd Apatow film “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” and Jonathan Demme’s film about Jimmy Carter (which Carter recognized Bern for when introducing Bern to his wife Roslyn, saying, “This is the fellow that wrote that song.”) Bern has opened for The Who (Daltrey has covered Bern’s songs), is a member of the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and taught tennis to Wilt Chamberlain.

The remastered, first-time-on-vinyl edition of New American Language will be followed by the launch of a six-week Dan Bern tour in Atlanta. See dates below. Starting Over, an all-new album of Bern songs is scheduled for release on March 1, 2024, via Grand Phony. More info forthcoming.

Dan Bern is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Dan Bern | “Bible”


[STREAM]: https://vyd.co/DanBernBible

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Glide calls “Bible” by Dan Bern, “a piano-driven work of folk-pop that carries a chorus that speaks to our current climate of divisiveness. Littered with pop culture and political references, not to mention a colorful history lesson, the song is both humorous and poignant in its lyrics and message.

“We also get plenty of grandiose rock and roll guitar, making this the kind of clever piano-rock that would make Warren Zevon smile.”

Listen via Glide here or at the link above.

Bern says, “In the midst of so much rancor and division, ‘no one in the Bible was white’ was a phrase that I had seen somewhere, and it seemed worthy of a song.”

About the upcoming new album Starting Over, Bern explains, “I started playing with the Jane’s Great Dane guys out of Boston after a snow blower incident that cost me a couple of fingertips and put me out of commission as far as playing the guitar for a while.

“Then, In the middle of the pandemic, Jonathan Plaut, from the band, suggested I come out to Connecticut and record some songs with them. I hadn’t been in a room with other musicians for over a year! Those sessions led to a second session, some months later, and eventually, Starting Over.”

Dan Bern is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Dan Bern
Starting Over
March 1, 2024
(Grand Phony Records)


Pre-Order Bundle Link:

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Track Listing:

01. Starting Over
02. Kinda Looks Like You
03. Marjorie
04. Clay County
05. Take A Chance
06. Never Seen You Before
07. Bones
08. I’m In
09. Mary Lou
10. Cowboy
11. 22nd Street
12. Bible  (STREAM)

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Dan Bern | On Tour

01/31/2024: Toronto, ON @ Monarch Tavern
02/01/2024: Rochester, NY @ Abilene
02/02/2024: Syracuse, NY @ 443 Social Club
02/03/2024: Saratoga Springs, NY @ Caffe Lena
02/04/2024: Northampton, MA @ Parlor Room
02/06/2024: Buffalo, NY @ 9th Ward
02/07/2024: Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
02/08/2024: Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
02/09/2024: Columbus, OH @ Natalie’s
02/10/2024: Newport, KY @ Southgate House Revival (Sanctuary)
02/12/2024: St. Louis, MO @ City Winery
02/14/2024: New Orleans, LA @ The Bluebird Cafe
02/15/2024: Louisville, KY @ Red Room at Flanagan’s
02/17/2024: Memphis, TN @ Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
02/18/2024: Fayetteville, AR @ Folk School of Fayetteville
02/19/2024: Oklahoma City, OK @ Blue Door
02/20/2024: Fort Worth, TX @ Post at River East
02/21/2024: Austin, TX @ Mohawk
02/22/2024: Houston, TX @ Mucky Duck
02/24/2024: San Antonio, TX @ Hermann Sons Ratskeller Bar

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Dan Bern | “God Said No” (Remastered)




“In a series of brisk, moving sentences… he begs God to send him back in time, saving the good and destroying evil.” — The Washington Post

Thirty albums into his career, the genius tunes of Dan Bern finally hit wax as the revered songwriter’s 2001 masterpiece New American Language gets a remastered double-album reissue. US tour celebrating New American Language continues through Feb. 24

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Dan Bern

New American Language (Remastered)
Out Now
(Grand Phony Records)


Streaming Link:

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Track Listing:

01. Sweetness
02. New American Language
03. Alaska Highway
04. God Said No  (STREAM)
05. Turning Over
06. Black Tornado
07. Albuquerque Lullaby (STREAM)
08. Tape
09. Honeydoo!
10. Toledo
11. Rice
12. Thanksgiving Day Parade (STREAM)

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More About New American Language by Dan Bern


Today sees the reissue, in a newly remastered edition, of New American Language, the 2001 album by acclaimed American songwriter, Dan Bern. Surprisingly, the occasion marks the first appearance of a Bern album on vinyl, during a career spanning more than 30 releases.

Dan’s epic ‘Thanksgiving Day Parade,’ literally took two years to record,” says the song’s producer, Wil Masisak in the liner notes of the upcoming reissue. “The sense that we’d made something worth hearing coupled with the knowledge that we couldn’t have done this alone or without difficulty was immensely rewarding.

“Unfortunately, the release date was set for Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, and so it is that this incredible collection of American songwriting seemingly meant for those who did their best to carry on after 9/11 finds itself a little lost to time.”

“With Dan Bern’s large and acclaimed catalog, I have no idea how he has never had a vinyl release,” says John Young of Grand Phony Records (Mike Viola, Trapper Schoepp), the label that will reissue Bern’s landmark album. New American Language is my favorite Dan Bern album, Young says. With “fresh and vibrant” remastered audio, it is literally clearer that Bern’s lyrics “have proven to be prescient, as if they were written yesterday,” according to Young.

“National treasure” is an overused phrase to denote somebody whom Americans acknowledge as important. Someone whose contributions to the American fabric are numerous, never in doubt, but rarely at risk.

Bern and his work is something more ingrained than what “national treasure” can measure. What Bern has offered throughout a 30-album and counting career speaks to something deeper in us than any two-word workaround for actual criticism could define. Bern’s work takes those risks, and New American Language is his career’s most precarious statement. In a world filled with plenty of “safer” controversial subjects to write about, Bern could do that if he felt like it. We are better for his decision not to.

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Dan Bern | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

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