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Reticient to talk about himself Dan Bern's songs
reveal much about his life story.
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BOB POSCH
A Comedian a Classical Guitar
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f you want to know about Dan
portraits of his band members as well
as several self-portraits — another
Dylan link? -- and he describes his
band as Bernstein and the
International Jewish Banking
Conspiracy.
When Bern explains the reason why
his friends know him as Bernstein
(pronounced Burn-stine), he chooses
his words carefully.
Bern, you'd better listen to his
music, or see him live.
"It's all there in my songs,"
says Bern, calm and resolute. "There's
a failing in the songs if it's not there. I
shouldn't have to provide footnotes,
and I don't."
Bern will bring his
stories and observations
to The Ark in Ann
Arbor Wednesday, Oct.
31. For the second year
in a row, Bern will
spend his Halloween on
stage there.
The musician can be
witty, incisive, hilarious,
deep, wry and touching
all in the course of a
song. He finds popular
culture as well as the
intricacies and absurdi-
ties of life to be fertile
ground, and he plows it
with abandon.
But off-stage, Bern
cultivates a life he keeps
private.
"If you focus on your
personal side, you put
the emphasis in the
wrong place. I have no
illusions about that. I
lay it on the line in my
Dan Bern: "I wanted to safeguard
songs. I can't give every- the name Bernstein for myself"
thing away. You need to
keep something for
yourself. If you don't,
He explains that his father fled
the service you provide is in jeop-
Lithuania
in 1939 for Palestine, but
ardy," Bern says.
ended up raising a family in Mt.
Where to draw the line between
Vernon, Iowa, where Bern grew up.
public and private is a common chal-
His father's experiences, his uncle's
lenge to those in the public eye. In
years
as a partisan fighter, and the
Bern's case, the line seems to be thin
destruction
of the rest of that side of
but strong. He can be intensely per-
the
family
in
Europe were never held
sonal in his songs but will dismiss
back from him.
anyone reading too much into it.
A 1999 visit to Lithuania made the
This characteristic is just' one more
family history strikingly real and per-
to add to the often-made comparison
between Bern and a young Bob Dylan sonal.
"I was impacted by the family that
— because of similarities in their
wasn't
there anymore," he says. "I met
style, voi c e, relevance and irreverence.
a
woman
who remembered the
On the CD booklet for his latest
Bernstein
family that used to be in
Bern
New
American
Language,
release,
her town."
has drawn a number of multicolored