January 13th

 It was on January 13th, 2019 that I saw American singer/songwriter, guitarist Dan Bern play The Almanac in Edmonton. Dan always puts on an entertaining show. It's been awhile since Dan Bern has come through town. Here's hoping he comes to Edmonton again soon.

February 6th

  

 It was February 6th, 2020 that I was at the Station On Jasper in Edmonton seeing American singer, songwriter, guitarist Dan Bern in concert.

Dan Bern Live in Edmonton February 6th 2020

A couple of weeks ago my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dan Bern concert at Station On Jasper. I was happy to see Dan Bern play a bigger venue then the last two times I saw him which was at The Almanac which is a good room for an intimate show but it was always so crowded it was hard to get a good seat where you could actually enjoy the show. So to see Bern play a bigger room and stage was going to be great.

Opening the show was Calgary folk artist Orit Shimoni she use to go by the name Little Birdie. She just recently released her tenth album and has been on tour with Dan Bern across Canada. Her opening set was pretty good, her music in her own words are kind of dark and depressing, she is a good writer but her music isn't exactly uplifting. Dan Bern joined her on stage for one song playing the harmonica. I thought she was alright, nothing I would rush out to buy though.

Orit Shimoni.

Next up was Iowa born but now based in Santa Cruz singer/songwriter Dan Bern. This would be my third time seeing Dan in concert. Dan is currently on the road touring for his latest release Regent Street.

As always Dan was very engaging with the audience, telling some great stories and playing songs such as "Regent Street" which what he opened the show with and having Orit Shimoni join him on stage playing the squeeze box, "Not Perfect", "Ridin On A Train" and "Dear Tiger Woods" from his new album. Also in the setlist were classics such as "Chelsea Hotel", "Black Tornado" the great and very funny song "Talkin' Canadian Blues". I thought it was great Orit joining him on stage as it added a little extra to Dan's music, but she actually ended up playing about half the show with him, which in the end took away from his performance. Dan played one of his most popular songs "Jerusalem" with Shimoni, but she messed up the words which kind of fucked up the song and it seemed he never really recovered the song, it was a bit of a mess. I would have to say I believe there is something going on between the two, more then just performing together.

The highlight of the show to me was finally hearing Dan play "Tiger Woods" from his 1998 album Fifty Eggs. The song is fucking hilarious and of the two previous times of seeing Dan in concert he had never played it. He actually has a second song about Tiger on his new album, a song called "Dear Tiger Woods". He played both songs back to back which was pretty damn cool. Another very funny song he played was "I Dreamed I Saw Donald Trump's Head Go Past My Window". The last song of the evening saw Dan walk through the crowd playing, if only I could remember which damn song it was. I guess if I actually write a review in a timely matter I might recall what it was. All in all it was a pretty good show. Good times!!!

Dan Bern.

Dan Bern Live in Edmonton Jan.13th 2019

Last Sunday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dan Bern concert at the Almanac. This would be my second time seeing Dan Bern in concert. This show at the intimate venue was sold out, and if you are not there early it's some hard to get a decent seat. Doors were to open at7pm, so we got there right at 7 but the venue had to have opened earlier as the place was already packed, so getting a good seat was not going to happen.

Opening the show was a gentleman by the name of Dan Smith a local musician, I had never heard of him before. Dan is a singer songwriter that plays roots based music. I thought he was alright playing mostly original songs, but did play two Townes Van Zandt covers. I thought his set was about 15 minutes too long as I found myself starting to get bored. Didn't help that he was sitting on a stool through is whole set which made it hard to see him unless you were sitting right at the front in which we were not. I would say he has a bright future with his music.

Headlining the evening was American singer/songwriter Dan Bern. After having seen him 11 months ago I had to go again, I enjoyed the show so much last February. Again Dan played to a sold out venue. Dan had a lot of great stories to tell and songs to play, but it seemed this time he did more talking then last time. The stories are great and usually funny, but the show started with him tuning his guitar and getting the sound person trying to get it just right for him. While this was happening he was telling stories but it was about 10 minutes before he finally got a song started. Lots of sound issues through out the show.

Once the songs got going it was a lot of laughs and sing a longs, it surprised me how well the whole audience knew the songs singing along. But then Dan likes to get everyone involved in his live shows. he had the crowd singing along to a song about Barry Bonds (baseball player) homerun totals over the course of his career. Big sing along to the Johnny Cash song "One Piece At A Time" in which Dan told a great story about touring for four months and only playing this song on all his driving between dates until he finally knew the song inside out.

Another big sing along was to his song "Jerusalem", a great song and it was cool to hear everyone sing this one out loud. Dan also played a new Tiger Woods song, this would be the second song he has written about Tiger Woods, and just as funny as his first one. Other songs played were "Black Tornado","Talkin' Canadian Blues", "Chelsea Hotel" and "God Said No".

Dan also told the audience about playing the American and Canadian anthems a few days before in Saskatoon at the Saskatoon Blades hockey game. I'm not sure what is ties are to the hockey team but this is the second time seeing him wearing a Blades wear, last time a t-shirt this time a cap, and doing the anthems at the game. Pretty cool considering they are a junior team that mostly Canadians only know about. His story was quite funny about learning the Canadian anthem and then come show time realizing that shit I'm not so sure I know the American anther's words after having studied all week learning the Canadian one.

It was only weeks after the Edmonton show last year that Dan Bern had an incident with a snow blower trying to unjam it, where he lost a couple of finger tips on his left hand in the accident, serious shit when you make your living playing guitar. Luckily he is back playing and sounding great.

Dan closed out the show with the Canadian national anthem in which the whole audience sang along with him. Good times!!!

Dan Bern Live in Edmonton February 15th 2018

Well it's been over a week already since my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dan Bern concert at the Almanac here in Edmonton. Dan Bern is a guitarist singer/songwriter and painter from Mount Vernon, Iowa. I was excited to hear that Dan Bern was playing Edmonton having followed him for years especially in the late 90's up til about 2005, it was then that he seemed to fall off my radar. Although he has been busy putting out albums all through the years right up til the present time. And to see an artist like Dan Bern play an intimate venue like the Almanac was going to be pretty damn cool.

Opening the show was local artist Paul Bellows. Paul is another artist that you used to hear his name in the local scene all the time, but again it's been years since I had heard anything about him.

Paul's opening set was pretty good. Though I didn't know his tunes, I thought he put on a good show. But I was there for Dan Bern.

Dan Bern opened the show with a song called "Freight Train Blues" a Doc & Merle Watson cover. And it was right from the first song when I noticed that all those in attendance were big Dan Bern fans, as people were singing along right from the get go. Another big sing along song was "Black Tornado", I didn't realize how popular Dan really was. It was cool to hear everyone singing along with Dan, it even looked like Dan was kind of surprised himself.

Dan was really engaging with the audience, telling some great stories and was funny as hell too. One of the first thing I noticed when Dan hit the stage was the t-shirt he was wearing, which was a Saskatoon Blades shirt. Dan mentioned how it was his favorite t-shirt he owned. The Blades are a Western Hockey League junior team, that surprised me, but would make more sense later on during the show. The show was full of surprises, as I was also surprised by how knowledgeable he was on Canadian culture and politics.

I can see why Dan gets compared to Bob Dylan a lot. Dan has a very distinctive voice and is one hell of a songwriter. Other songs Dan did that I knew were "God Said No", "Shakespeare's Got A Gun", "Jerusalem", "Party By Myself" and "Fascist". There wasn't a bad song played all night, no boring moments or anything, just a stellar show from start to finish. It was about two thirds through the show when Dan invited a gentleman on stage to do a few songs with him, and that man was the General Manager of the Saskatoon Blades Colin Priestner. Colin was actually a great singer as well, who would have guessed. The last song of the night Dan wandered through the crowd singing and playing the guitar and invited opener Paul Bellows out with him where the two of them belted out a song. All and all this was an amazing night of music. A great show. Good times!!!

Dan Bern at The Almanac.

Dan Bern and Colin Priestner.