January 12th saw 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.
The remastered, first-time-on-vinyl edition of New American Language is followed by the launch of a six-week Dan Bern tour in Atlanta on Jan. 17. An all-new Dan Bern album Starting Over, arrives on March 1st via Grand Phony preceded by the single “Bible,” another in a long line of outspoken Bern songs.
Bern is accompanied on Starting Over by the band Jane’s Great Dane.
“National treasure” is an overused phrase to denote something 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.
Today Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of Bern’s new song “Bible,” 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.
“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.” About “Bible,” 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.” — Dan Bern
LISTEN:
One Response
Will the new album be available on CD and/or digital download? It is ridiculous that the primary release format these days is vinyl. WTF???