past belief

I like trumpets

2009-09-14T19:06:00.003-04:00

3 months and counting until DB hits the DC area. Huzzah.

In the meantime, whoever decided that "The Golden Voice of Vin Scully" needed a trumpet is ok by me.

ps A live album? Do tell.
pps Dan, if you need someone to sing that woman's harmony part while you're out on the east coast, just give me a call. I've got it covered.

Does this mean I have to give in to Twitter?

2009-08-23T12:56:00.003-04:00

I joined Myspace to better keep up with Bern, will I now have to join Twitter, too?

Lulu Pepper Juliana Bern, that's a lot of name for a baby girl :) Mazel tov!

This show on the Internet Archive, from Central Park in 1997 is really doing it for me today. Especially True Revolutionaries and Talkin' Mrs. DiFranco Blues.

I am anxiously awaiting December, and hoping that DC makes it on to this list. If not, no worries, as I've convinced 3 of my favorite people we need to go to New York that first weekend in December. Best Hanukkah present ever?

Nice Hat(s)

2009-03-17T16:46:00.002-04:00

nadal y yo en madrid

2008-11-30T15:38:00.002-05:00

Quiero estar en Madrid con Nadal y DB. Quiero estar en Madrid sin Nadal y DB. No me importa.

Just to prove I haven't forgotten about this blog...

2008-10-27T16:40:00.004-04:00

New CD: The "Moving Home" album is now available on iTunes etc. All proceeds go to charity.

There seem to be a lot of new Dan Bern videos on YouTube--from Germany and other places. Here's one of my favorites:

If I lived in Alaska I'd be way more excited about the upcoming DB shows than the prospect of Sarah Palin as Vice President (God forbid. I hope she's heading home to Alaska for good very soon).

life on the road is hard

2008-08-05T17:12:00.002-04:00

hahahahaha.

more set lists...

2008-06-10T22:21:00.004-04:00

Jammin' Java, Vienna VA, 01.06.08
Black Tornado
Trudy
God Said No
Luke the Drifter
2014
Suicide Room
Breathe
World War
(break)
City of Models
Changes
Witness
Land of the Dead
Eva
Suzanne
Art on the Run
(started to play Suzanne again...)
Marilyn
Baby Bye Bye
I'm Not the Guy
(break)
Thunder Road
Running
Walking Through Glass
Pride Goes Before a Fall
Phoenix
(attempted Bright Lights)
Mexican Vacation (aborted mid verse)
Jerusalem
Last Communist on Earth

Gravity Lounge, Charlottesville VA, 02.06.08
Black Tornado
Trudy
Witness
Eva
Suzanne
Equal and Opposite Reaction
Walking Through Glass
I'm Not the Guy
Luke the Drifter
Capetown
Baby Bye Bye
Pride Goes Before a Fall
Ostrich Town
Chelsea Hotel
Desert Rain
Joe Van Gogh
Cure for AIDS/The Day Ralph Edwards Came to Town
Marilyn
Never Fall in Love
Eleanor
Art on the Run
Jerusalem
Dear Mr. President
Royal Jelly
The Hour I Stopped Looking at Breasts
I Need You
Starting Over
Clouds

Chick Singers

2008-06-10T12:40:00.003-04:00

My best friend (who does not have a bald head) sent me a CD of chick singers, which I received (appropriately) upon my return from seeing Dan Bern in Philadelphia. The (superb) track listing:

1) son of a preacher man - dusty springfield
2) you are what you love - jenny lewis with the watson twins
3) tears dry on their own - amy winehouse
4) nagori yuki - aiko and kiroro
5) day like any - amy lavere
6) mushaboom - feist
7) your daddy don't know - the new pornographers
8) kabukicho no jou - shiina ringo
9) god - tori amos
10) on the radio - regina spektor
11) next best western - lucy wainwright roche
12) change my night - feathermerchants
13) knock 'em out - lily allen
14) brand new key - melanie
15) mercedes benz - janis joplin
16) didn't leave nobody but the baby - emmylou harris, alison krauss, and gillian welch

Williamsburg Set List

2008-06-04T21:59:00.005-04:00

Williamsburg Hall of Music, Brooklyn NY, 29.5.08
Black Tornado
One Thing Real
Trudy
Luke the Drifter (I think that's what this song is being called?)
City of Models
Running
Land of the Dead
Merkle
Capetown
22nd Street
Earth Girl
Chelsea Hotel
Suicide Room
Alabaster
Phoenix (Meet Me in Phoenix?)
World War
Dear Mr. President
Branford Marsalis
Freight Train Blues
I Need you

Hamell on Trial played an opening set, Paul Kuhn played the cellocaster, it was an all around great time.

mini update...

2008-05-31T22:43:00.002-04:00

Saw Dan Bern at the Williamsburg Hall of Music in Brooklyn on Thursday night. Everything will be up, someday (sigh), but here's a link to DB and Paul Kuhn playing a favorite of mine that I was glad to hear resurface, Land of the Dead.

DVD and a show

2008-04-14T01:26:00.002-04:00

HERE is a breakdown of the Walk Hard DVD.

Dan Bern shows are my favorite travel excuse ever. I came out to LA to see my bestest friend/see DB at the Hotel Cafe. (Not to mention go to the Getty. I would move into the Getty right now, if that were, you know, allowed.) I taped the (short but sweet) set, which included some new songs, and Mike Viola joining in for an awesomely harmonized rendition of "Beautiful Ride". I'll post songs when I'm back on the east coast.

Radio8Ball

2008-03-17T23:57:00.003-04:00

Dan Bern and Mike Viola are on the Radio8Ball show tomorrow from the Hayworth Theater in LA. I'm not, but maybe you can listen live here?

Listen to DB on Radio8Ball last month here.

Paintings and Tour Dates

2008-02-26T16:10:00.003-05:00

YAY and YAY.

I'd like to open a Dan Bern Gallery. Where I would play Dan Bern's music all day. And there would be lots of coffee to drink and chairs to sit in and read while drinking coffee and looking at paintings. Out back there would be a patio with picnic tables with those ash trays I was always so amused by in Turkey where you press down and it swallows the ashes.

(Ok, basically I want to open Dunn Bros with better seating. So sue me. I miss the Twin Cities.)

Things that fell through the cracks

2008-01-15T20:21:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, an interview with Dan Bern was the feature story on Pen's Eye View (www.penseyeview.com). A sample:

I almost always like it when my songs are used in different mediums. I think of songs as, you know, like chairs that you make. And you want to see ‘em used. The segment you’re talking about, it had people sending in little videos with little 3-word messages. How can that not be cool? It’s not like the song’s being used to sell trucks.

And here's the video, from Good Morning America.

More video? Here's Dan's rewrite of "Walk Hard"--featuring DB as Howard Cosell:

Also on the internets these days: 2 shows from Santa Cruz in November 2007 are posted on the Internet Archive. Thanks, Keith Kreider!:
November 27, 2007
November 28, 2007

(I'm SO excited to see Slavery Girl on these playlists--there's a version of this song from The Attic from a year or so ago, and I really love it, and requested it at a show last spring, and Dan said he thought he was the only one who liked it. I'm glad to see he's still playing it.)

Speaking of shows...the only tour date listed these days seems to be at the Rubin Museum in New York, on May 30. Info here. Of course, if you happen to be at Sundance, Bern and Mike Viola are playing songs from Walk Hard at the Sundance Cafe sometime next week.

And, I think, that's about it.

Bern Talks Cox

2007-12-17T23:43:00.001-05:00

The News Tribune (from Tacoma, WA), has an short interview with Dan Bern about working on Walk Hard.

Einstein and Van Gogh

2007-12-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, so the Walk Hard soundtrack is clearly hilarious, end of story. What makes me laugh just as much is that Dan Bern can't get through a whole album--even when it isn't his own--without mentioning Einstein and Van Gogh.

Compared to Einstein and Van Gogh I'm closer to my little toe
- "Farmer Glickstein"

Also, check out NPR's Fresh Air from Monday, where Jake Kasdan talks about the Bern penned "(Have You Heard the News) Dewey Cox Died." (The site also has a few songs from the soundtrack posted.)

Went to See Dan Bern

2007-11-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

Smyles and Fish has published a poem called "Went to See Dan Bern" by Steven Dube. First stanza:

Went to see Dan Bern

The man in front of me

turned to me

and said it's like having God

in front of you

Later he yelled out

Dan your shirt is inside out

Dan replied

It is

It looks good either way

New (old) Albums

2007-11-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

Macaroni Cola (um, ok.) and Divine and Conquer! On iTunes. (Which I've been fighting with for two days after trying to update, and now I have no iTunes on my computer, and after reading the message boards on the iTunes website, I am afraid to ever plug my iPod in again, and I may never buy anything with an "i" infront of it again.)

(See Mix Me a Molotov for actual info about the songs/albums...I'm just going to hope that no more technology breaks down on me before this post is finished.)

You're Not Here! (one of my favorites. There's a heartbreaking live version of this from a show in Utah floating around out there, I'm sure somewhere in the Dan Bern Digital Archive. If the cord for my external hard drive hadn't fallen on the radiator cover and gotten burned and stopped working, I'd post it. But there you go.) In God's Time! Forever! SIGH.

Track lists below.

Divine and Conquer:
1. Marilyn
2. Feel Like a Man
3. You're Not Here
4. Eva
5. Live Another Day
6. Information
7. Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh
8. One More Light
9. In God's Time
10. Suzanne

Macaroni Cola:
1. Bike
2. Nuclear Bomb
3. Tonight I'm Coming Home
4. Dress
5. Walking Through Glass
6. Jim Rome
7. Just Down at the End of the Row
8. See What Is
9. Shakespeare's Got a Gun
10. To Love You
11. Wednesday Night
12. Without You
13. Witness
14. Smart and Final
15. Licorice
16. Running
17. Forever
18. Vow of Silence

ps a new tour date in LA announced, as part of some benefit...

Soundtrack Details

2007-11-01T21:57:00.000-04:00

from the Playlist:

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
All tracks performed by John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox
(except “Let’s Duet” performed by John C. Reilly and Angela Correa)
All Tracks Produced by Michael Andrews

01. “Walk Hard" - Written by Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan
02. “Take My Hand” - Written by Antonio Ortiz, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan
03. “(Mama) You Got To Love Your Negro Man”- Written by Michael Andrews, John C. Reilly, Robert Walter, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan
04. “A Life Without You (Is No Life At All)” - Written by Mike Viola
05. “Let's Duet” - Written by Charlie Wadhams and Benji Hughes
06. “Darling” - Written by Mike Viola and John C. Reilly
07. “(I Hate You) Big Daddy” - Written by Mike Viola
08. “Guilty As Charged” - Written by Charlie Wadhams and Gus Seyffert
09. “Dear Mr. President”- Written by Dan Bern and Mike Viola
10. “Let Me Hold You (Little Man)” - Written by Dan Bern, Mike Viola and Manish Raval
11. “Royal Jelly” - Written by Dan Bern
12. “Black Sheep” - Written by Michael Andrews and Van Dyke Parks
13. “Starman” - Written by David Bowie
14. “Beautiful Ride” - Written by Dan Bern and Mike Viola
15. “(Have You Heard The News) Dewey Cox Died” - Written by Dan Bern

Demme Interview

2007-10-31T11:29:00.000-04:00

I smiled at this shout-out to Dan Bern in Richard Lieby's interview with Jonathan Demme in the Washington Post this morning:

You've always had great music in your movies. Name some songs on your iPod "most played" list.

Alejandro Escovedo's "Gravity/Falling Down Again." He was one of my composers on "Jimmy Carter Man From Plains." He's a Texas genius. I'm listening to Neil Young's new record like crazy. He's got an 18-minute song on it, "Ordinary People," and it's a masterwork. Emmylou Harris is in constant rotation on my iPod. Sister Carol East -- she had a pretty big part in "Something Wild," and was also in "Married to the Mob." Have you heard TV on the Radio? The lead singer, Tunde Adebimpe, plays the groom in the movie I'm doing now. Scribble down another name for me: Dan Bern. "Breathe." He wrote the "Ballad of Jimmy Carter" for the movie. There's another title of his, please listen to it: "Jerusalem." Then you can turn your kids on to these songs.

The whole interview is on the Washington Post website.

Walk Hard Soundtrack

2007-10-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

(photo from fanpop.com. thanks to JBJ for pointing me towards it some time ago.)

The Playlist has the track listing for the Walk Hard soundtrack, scheduled for release December 4:

Viola and Bern wrote the brunt of the film's songs. Viola contributed "Big Daddy," "A Life Without You is Like No Life At All," and "Darling" (the last co-written with John C. Reilly), while Bern wrote "There’s A Change A’ Happenin’," "Hole in My Pants," "Farmer Glickstein," "Hey Mr. Old Guy," and "Royal Jelly." The duo shared songwriting duties on "Dear Mr. President" and the movie’s finale, "Beautiful Ride."

Bern's got a post-Torre bone to pick with the Yankees. ha.

UPDATE: Just came across a new video posted on YouTube, DB playing "Jerusalem" in Portland, October 2004:

Video, New Shows

2007-10-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

New shows, wrong coast! November 27 and 28 at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz.

I came across this video of God Said No (from Germany?) the other day:

Dan Bern 2007 Solingen

Add to My Profile | More Videos

And Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan and John C. Reilly talk Walk Hard.

ADD Jane

2007-10-15T22:02:00.000-04:00

This very adorable cartoon, A.D.D. Jane, uses "Jane" over the credits at the end. Cute!

There's an update on all things Walk Hard at The Playlist.

Man from Plains

2007-10-08T20:19:00.000-04:00

That's some good old time country music there.

Not Much

2007-09-26T20:00:00.001-04:00

A few, mostly unrelated, things:

California dates (hooray for those on the West Coast):
October 20: Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival
October 21: Monterey County Fair Grounds (831-372-5863)

Bern on Springsteen:
"I think 'Thunder Road' is one of the best songs ever written. It transforms disappointment into eternal hope."
I guess this comes from the Light of Day liner notes? I got it here. (Incidentally, new Springsteen comes out this tuesday, I think. My officemate has an advance copy, and if you ask me its not too bad, not too bad at all.)

An arm wrestling match to remember, at the Happy Endings Music and Reading Series.

Rumors of a Walk Hard boxed set abound!

There's a studio recording of 'See What Is' on Bern's myspace, huzzah!

And lastly: today's Writer's Almanac seemed like an apt response (if you were looking for one) to 'Breathe.' Especially the second stanza:

Don't tell me to chill out,
don't tell me to "breathe,"
I hate breathing
I mean unless it is happening
without my knowing it,
which is, thank God, most of the time,

-Deborah Garrison

The whole thing is here.

UPDATE:The Barry Bonds record breaking ball will go in the Baseball Hall of Fame, after being branded with an asterisk.

Walk Hard trailers

2007-08-17T21:17:00.000-04:00

"I like to blow you/kisses." hehehe. I'm laughing already.

Here are the trailers:

UPDATE: Here's a much more descriptive post at The Playlist

Cedar Rapids article

2007-08-16T20:57:00.001-04:00

Here's a nice piece, looking forward to this weekend's Cedar Rapids dates.

"Ashford and Bern return for Cabaret in the Courtyard"

Also, this week's new Myspace mp3 is Bike! hurray. Its like Dan Bern does children's music, almost.

756

2007-08-08T10:07:00.000-04:00

Well, Bonds did it, finally. And, from the little I saw, seemed pretty gracious about the whole thing.

Here's a version of "73" from Maxwell's, May 24, 2007:
73

(there are also a couple of blog entries about Bonds on Bern's Myspace)

more on Walk Hard

2007-08-06T11:07:00.000-04:00

I was hoping to see a Walk Hard trailer when I went to see (the completely hilarious) Hot Rod this weekend. Sadly, no. Apparently the trailer premieres with Superbad on August 17. (Unfortunately, Superbad doesn't actually look so good...though Michael Cera is always funny.)

Also...Eddie Vedder is in the movie! And Paul Rudd plays John Lennon. Yay.

UPDATE: There's a little piece on the movie in the latest Rolling Stone, which says

Singer-songwriter Dan Bern and Candy Butchers frontman Mike Viola wrote most of the film's many songs, which range from the protest anthems "There's a Change a Happenin'" and "Mulatto" to the Johnny Cash-esque "Hole in My Pants." (Marshall Crenshaw wrote the title tune and Van Dyke Parks was enlisted for one of Cox's psychedelic jams.) "It was almost like a Manhattan Project for songwriters," says Bern. "It was the most fun thing I've ever done."
-Rolling Stone, August 9, 2007 (p. 20)

Cedar Rapids dates

2007-08-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

A couple of dates later this month in Cedar Rapids, Cabaret in the Courtyard at Brucemore, were just quietly posted. August 17-19. Check it out at the Brucemore site and on Bern's MySpace.

Here's another song recorded in May at the East End Cafe:
Virginia Tech Song

Hamell on Trial

2007-07-16T14:56:00.000-04:00

I came across a livejournal entry from Hamell on Trial with a Dan Bern mention today, and then spent a long time reading his livejournal and not so much time working.

He opened a bunch of shows for DB last fall, the couple I caught were pretty great. There're quite a few sets, maybe some from those shows, I don't know, on archive.org -- definitely worth checking out.

ps The NAL self portrait e-bay auction is up to $1,500. nice.

Painting Auction

2007-07-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

Dan Bern's self portrait used as part of the cover art for "New American Language" is being auctioned on e-bay. Buy it for me?

I've been stuck in this goin' no place desk job
For too many months, it's time to move on
If I quit and just tried to just do my paintings
I wonder if I could come up with the rent
-Vin Scully

(Check out the studio recording of "Dress" on myspace. Awesome.)

On My Mind

2007-06-26T14:27:00.001-04:00

Most Tuesdays I have a horribly boring meeting to sit through. Today I drew a picture, to illustrate the Dan Bern song stuck in my head. The lyrics are here.

Update: There's a new song on DB's Myspace today that I've never heard, Licorice. A Dan Bern song I've never heard? That just makes my day.

a story from Boston

2007-06-19T15:47:00.000-04:00

My friend Ben, with no encouragement from me (which makes my day), went to see Dan Bern in Boston last month, and recently told me this charming little story:

Hey I saw this son of a bitch in Boston. He took a break to pee and I asked him as he walked past me back to mike I said "Hey, could you find it in your heart to play Jerusalem?" and he said "I'll look real deep." He played it.

Also, there are 4 or so newly posted videos on youtube from a show at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana from last fall. My sister goes to Earlham, and we went to the show, and it was pretty great. Aw, except for the part where Dan had hurt his leg playing tennis earlier that day. So they (Bernstein, Paul Kuhn and Garrin Benfield) played the whole show sitting down. Which was just kinda odd. But ok.

the Torn Flag

2007-06-14T12:17:00.000-04:00

Happy Flag Day? (Its always struck me as a particularly inane holiday, but oh well). But here are the words to Pete Seeger's poem The Torn Flag, which Dan Bern put to music on My Country II (I lifted them, and the story below, from this website):

THE TORN FLAG

At midnight in a flaming angry town
I saw my country's flag lying torn upon the ground.
I ran in and dodged among the crowd,
And scooped it up, and scampered out to safety.

And then I took this striped old piece of cloth
And tried my best to wash the garbage off.
But I found it had been used to wrapping lies.
It smelled and stank and attracted all the flies.

While I was feverishly at my task,
I heard a husky voice that seemed to ask:
"Do you think you could change me just a bit?
Betsy Ross did her best, but she made a few mistakes.

My blue is good, the color of the sky.
The stars are good for ideals, oh, so high.
Seven stripes of red are strong to meet all danger;
But those white stripes: they, they need some changing.

I need also some stripes of deep, rich brown,
And some of tan and black, then all around
A border of God's gracious green would look good there.
Maybe you should slant the stripes, then I'd not be so square."

I woke and said, "What a ridiculous story.
Don't let anybody say I suggested tampering with Old Glory."
But tonight it's near midnight, and in another flaming town
Once again I hear my country's flag lies torn upon the ground.

Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1969)
TRO - © 1970 Melody Trails, Inc., New York, NY

(Malcolm X once debated another black man as to whether they could call themselves Americans. "I'm not an American," said Malcolm, "Why do you think you are?" "I'm an American because I was born here," said the other. "well, you could put a shoe in an oven and that wouldn't make it a biscuit," was Malcolm's retort. I'm afraid I have no such choice. My light-skinned ancestors participated fully in the decisions, good and bad, which formed this nation. I've spent a lifetime fighting the blacklisters who tried to make me feel like an outcast in my own home. "I had an uncle who wrote a poem with the lines: "I have a rendezvous with death / At midnight in some flaming town. . ." So I made some new verses. I don't have a regular tune for it yet — I kind of chant it to an improvised modal melody." — Pete Seeger)

"And a few more stars and some green in the flag seems like it might be good..." - from "President"

New Songs from the East End

2007-06-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

Thanks to J for breaking up the East End show. Eventually all 4 shows will make their way to the Dan Bern Digital Archive, but for now I'll post some of the new songs:

Things Break Down
Goin' Down to Texas
Carried Away
The Cold War

More to come!

I'd put you in the movies, if movies were mine to make

2007-05-31T16:42:00.001-04:00

All the articles I read before/during this last tour made mention of some secretive movie project. Well...this made its way onto YouTube, which led to some Googling, which led to Mike Viola's site, specifically the news section on March 14, 2007:

I’ve been back and forth from LA writing songs for a new movie called Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox story. It’s being shot now so I hesitate to give too many details, but…basically it’s a spoof bio pic. It pokes fun at movies like Ray, Walk The Line, Great Balls Of Fire, The Buddy Holly Story. Not poking fun at the music, but how the movies all follow the same storyline tragectory. So… they needed lots of songs for this thing. Marshall Crenshaw wrote the title track and there were a few other writers involved too like Van Dyke Parks. Most of the songs I co-wrote with Dan Bern, one of the best writers I’ve ever worked with.

Here's the IMDB page for the movie, which was written by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan.

I have it on good authority that DB and Paul Kuhn were recording some music this week for Jonathan Demme's (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) upcoming Jimmy Carter documentary as well.

(thanks to mix me a molotov for the link in today's post!)

Maxwell's

2007-05-30T09:52:00.000-04:00

Dan Bern at Maxwell's on May 25, 2007: Best night ever? Quite possibly. It was great to be with friends and other fans, and we spent some high quality time with the man himself afterwards. Not to mention the fantastic Paul Kuhn (apparently it takes three people to make a cellocaster, and the one he plays is still the only one there is. I'm pretty impressed by the whole deal).

Set List I'm Not the Guy / Cape Town / Krautmeyer / Baby Bye Bye / Carried Away / President / Gambling with My Love / 73 / Kurt / Alaska Highway / Breathe / Goin' Down to Texas / Blowin' in the Wind
Encore: Alright Kind of a Girl / Tiger Woods / Soul / Jerusalem

(Thanks to M for the pictures, L for the post-concert provisions, K and E for being there too, and J for facilitation)

New (old) Show Online

2007-05-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

Someone's posted a short 2003 show from Mariaville, NY on the Internet Archive. Yay for new Dan Bern on a Wednesday.

Here are some more pictures from last week--they're on Facebook, will the link work? I don't know.

(On a non-Dan note: I'm watching the Monica Goodling hearing online at work--what's with these young, blond, republican women? Are they all consciously aspiring to be Anne Coulter? If so...why?)

4 days, 3 shows

2007-05-21T11:08:00.000-04:00

So, I managed to make it to three Dan Bern shows last week: Wednesday at the Birchmere, the late show at Puck in Doylestown, PA on Friday, and the East End Cafe in Newark, Delaware on Saturday. Apparently word had gotten out (though not to me) that the Birchmere show was going to be more of an opening set--as it was, it was pretty much a greatest hits set. Which I guess, for people mostly not there just to see him, is the way to do it. And the East End Cafe more than made up for any disappointment (how have I not gone there to see him before?! Oh right, I've spent most of my DB-crazy years in Minnesota. I definitely will go to East End shows from now on).

I recorded the shows straight through, and will post tracks, if I can ever figure out how to break them up into tracks...for now, set lists!:

The Birchmere (May 16)
Jerusalem
Tiger Woods
Black Tornado
God Said No
President
Breathe
Suicide Room
Past Belief
Marilyn
Blue Highway

Puck (May 18, 10 pm show)
Birdhouse in Your Soul (They Might be Giants cover--he really just played the first few lines, then decided, I think, that it was too high. He was sick, poor guy!)
Crosses
I Need You
Baby Bye Bye
Suicide Room
Too Late to Die Young
Carried Away*
Cowboy
Past Belief
Marilyn
Wasteland
Albuquerque Lullaby
Cape Town
Airplane Blues

East End Cafe (May 19)

One Thing Real
I Need You
Joe Van Gogh
Breathe
Jail
Cure for AIDS
New American Language
Baby Bye Bye
Mexican Vacation
Airplane Blues (or, the tune to Airplane Blues, with some words about whiskey and rhyming...)
Trudy
Feel Like a Man
Being Alone (how excited was I to hear this live?, ps)
Things Break Down*
Going Down to Texas*
Carried Away*
The Cold War*
Come Along*
Encore:
Black Tornado
Virginia Tech Song*
Suicide Room
Run Away
Clouds
While Circling Chicago...
House of the Rising Sun
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Marilyn

*new songs, I don't know if these are really the titles

Probably the highlight for me was Mexican Vacation--I'd requested it Friday night, to which he replied "I thought I was the only one who liked that song," and didn't play it. So when he told the story of me requesting it on Friday, and played it, on Saturday, it made my weekend. (Listen to the most beautiful version ever of Mexican Vacation from November at the Attic on the Internet Archive)

I'll make it to one more show on this stint, at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Is it Friday yet?

Pictures from: Puck, Puck and the East End.

Start the Day with Music

2007-05-17T12:31:00.000-04:00

Often, while bored beyond belief at my less than glamourous legal assistant job, I think about starting a blog. Today is the day. I saw Bernstein last night at the Birchmere, and figured since the two things I spend most of my time at work doing are reading blogs and searching the internet for Dan Bern recordings, clearly the only thing to do is combine the two. Welcome.

"Let's start the day with music and wake up everybody who's fool enough to try sleeping before its getting light out." -Toledo, New American Language