Recipient of the Rex Foundation's 1998
RALPH J. GLEASON AWARD
The Rex Foundation established the Ralph J. Gleason Award in 1986 for outstanding contributions to culture. The award is named in memory of the pioneering jazz and pop music journalist Ralph J. Gleason (1917-1975) who was a major figure in the advancement of creative music in America. Gleason displayed an openness to new music and new ideas that transcended differences between generations and styles.
If there is an American folk lineage from Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Dan Bern would appear to be the inheritor of the mantle With a second album, Fifty Eggs (produced by Ani DiFranco) just released, Bern continues to contribute his unique vision to the American consciousness.
Defying easy description, Dan Bern has been called a, "topical-political-sarcastic-punk-folk," musician by one journalist, while the New York Times said, "He veers from comedy to anger, conjectures to shaggy-dog stories; he takes sidelong approaches to theology, science fiction, consumer culture, art, love and baseball."
Dan Bern's anger and sense of being an outsider, is a family legacy. His parents fled Nazi Germany and settled in Iowa, where they were one of few Jewish families. His musical talent is also inherited; his late father was a composer and music teacher, his sister a professional singer. But unlike his deeply rooted family, Dan has had a nomadic existence for most of his 32 years, traveling around the country on a seemingly endless-loop tour and compulsively writing hundreds of songs. Dan's mission is to bring his music to an appreciative public. A review of the Philadelphia Folk Festival noted that Dan came to the event, "a virtual unknown. By the time he finished his first set, he was the event's undeniable star."
Dan contends that music has the power to change the world. He says so himself, in "One Dance": "Woody Guthrie carves a sign into his guitar that says this machine kills fascists/Ani DiFranco says every tool is a weapon if you hold it right / I say, here's a monkey wrench, if you bob me over the head long enough I might wake up."
1998 / 50 eggs
tiger woods
one thing real
no missing link
oh sister
cure for aids
chick singers
different worlds
everybody's baby
one dance
jesus freak
monica
rolling away
suzanne
1997 / dan bern
jerusalem
go to sleep
wasteland
marilyn
king of the world
too late to die young
rome
i'm not the guy
never fall in love
estelle
queen
1996 / dog boy van
jerusalem
kurt
hannubel
live another day
talkin' alien abduction
blues
oklahoma
Dan Bern's web site is www.dbhq.com. He was nominated for the Ralph J. Gleason Award by Robert Hunter.
