Dan Bern, 23 Jan 2006, 12 Galaxies, San Francisco, CA setlist: (electric) Christian New Year / Never Fall In Love / Hannibal / Clouds / City Of Juarez / Airplane Blues (Lightnin’ Hopkins) / (switch to acoustic) Breathe / Sometimes You Gotta Let Yourself Fall / City Of Models / Baby Bye Bye / Revolution Begins In The Basement / Suicide Room / Past Belief / Another Man’s Clothes // Blue Highway / Chelsea Hotel

Will 2006 be The Year Of Dan Bern?

It certainly felt like it as we watched Dan Bern take the stage last night to preview new material from an album he is currently recording. Dan was laid back, happy, and had good things to say about sessions for the new cd (currently taking place in Los Angeles). Songs from this recent batch such as Breathe, Clouds, and Blue Highway are easily some of the best of his career. They present (dare I say it) a more mature songwriting — gone are the pop culture references and the stream of consciousness lyrics are scaled back a bit. The themes and style of writing seem very old-school country to me — fitting very nicely with Nashville and Memphis-themed new releases from Frank Black (Honeycomb) and Cat Power (The Greatest). These songs are ones that only Dan could write, but yet have the feel of timeless classics.

Dan featured two brand new songs tonight as well: Christian New Year and Another Man’s Clothes. He’ll be appearing one more time this week at 12 Galaxies - Wednesday night (January 25th), and I’m sure he’ll be unveiling more new material. Come check him out if you can.

Dan Bern - Breathe (recorded at KAOS-FM in Olympia, 27 Sep 2005)

Dan Bern - Blue Highway (video clip from last night’s show, 95mb)

P.S. You San Franciscans should check out Scott Young when you can. He was the opener for last night’s performance and really blew everyone away with his ukulele-based act. Hilarious yet heartfelt and touching, his set consisted of cover tunes (running a crazy gamut from big-band era standards, to “Funkytown”, to “Strawberry Fields”), with a few originals and a clever parody tossed in for good measure. His voice reminded me of Bing Crosby or old cowboy singers — a beautiful high croon to it. He has no album, no website, but he lives only a few blocks away from the 12 Galaxies club, so maybe you’ll get a chance to see him. For now, enjoy this little video clip of him performing The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” –

Scott Young - God Only Knows (video clip, 39mb)

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