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Dan Bern insists he's not the next Dylan by MICHEL THIBODEAU Being compared to Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie is a fact of life for most up-and-coming folk artists, especially if your name is Dan Bern. The Iowa singer's Midwest American nasal twang has more than a few believing he is the very incarnation of a younger, acoustic-era Dylan. Bern wants the comparisons to stop. "That's just the way I sing," he insists over the phone from B.C., where he was performing at the Vancouver Folk Festival. "It was nice at first, but after a while it becomes annoying. I mean, I can't help it if I sound like someone else." While he signed to Work/Sony in 1996, he has been touring extensively for the past two years, most recently opening for Ani DiFranco. When asked how it felt to perform in front of a primarily pro-feminist crowd, Bern (whose lyrics reflect a very pro-male attitude) shrugged. "Any guy opening for Ani already has two strikes against him: One, the attention is all on her and you're kinda getting in the way. Second, being a man doesn't help. I'm not going to apologize for my anatomy, so I might as well flaunt it. I'll sing songs about having big balls. That way, you add some humour to the situation." Humour is Bern's songwriting bread and butter. Take his lyrics for his song "Jerusalem": Bern tries to stop the world from waiting for a saviour by joyously announcing that he is, in fact, the Messiah. The same goes for "Marilyn," in which Bern posits that Marilyn Monroe would have been happier with Henry Miller than with playwright Arthur Miller. When I tell Bern that the latter song has stirred many barroom arguments, he couldn't be happier. "When I write these songs, I don't expect to generate debates, but I'm glad when they do. If people get pissed off with my songs, so be it. I have no patience for narrow-minded, intolerant people, anyway." Strong words for such a nice boy from Mount Vernon, Iowa. The son of Lithuanian Jews who barely escaped the Holocaust, Bern went from being an English major to a tennis pro who gave lessons to Wilt Chamberlain, to playing coffee houses in L.A., where he's been based for the past six years. Quite the résumé. But then again, these are the happiest times for Bern. "Sure, it gets lonely, but it reminds me of my childhood, when my family travelled extensively." Any thoughts about actually settling down? "Well, maybe at the end of this year, but as it is I'm having too much fun to stop." Dan Bern plays Cabaret on Wednesday, July 30, along with Norm Dionne and Pigeon Hole, 8:30pm, $7 + tax/services |
Big-balled messiah