Dan Bern
W/ Special Guest Orit Shimoni
Monday (Family Day) Feb 17
Doors 6:00 Show 7:30
Tickets $ 20 at Bozzini’s or call 604 792 0744 to reserve by phone

So excited to be presenting Dan Bern.

Acclaimed singer-songwriterDan Bern is touring the US, Canada and Europe in 2020 in support of his new release REGENT STREET. After losing two fingertips from an accident with a snowblower in March 2018, Bern found himself unable to play guitar for nearly a year. Turning to the piano, he found fresh perspective which led to Regent Street, acollection of eleven songs that reach new artistic heights. The title track and lead singlewas previously recorded by Roger Daltrey, a fan of Bern’s work, after Bern sent The Who singer a demo. “Regent Street” was recorded for this album in a style inspired by Daltrey’s version, and Bern considers it a cover of his own song. Passionate, energetic andpoignant, Regent Streetis a stand-out album in Bern’s impressive discography.

Praise for Regent Street—”Regent Street is an artistic triumph.” —Staccatofy
“Regent Street is a true breath of fresh air. This is a big, thoughtful record for desperately confusing times.”—Blake Morneau, Rags Music
“Vital, the real thing, hit it out of the park, a masterpiece.”—Kevin Hayes, Old Crow Medicine Show
“Dan Bern is at the top of his game with Regent Street. Adventurous, undeniable, alive, and one of Bern’s best records. I was blown away by all of it.”—Steve Almond, author and social critic, Candyfreakand the “Dear Sugar” podcast with Cheryl Strayed

While Bern may be best-known for his masterpieces “Jerusalem,” “Marilyn,” and “Tiger Woods,” he has released 25 albums and EPs, and played thousands of shows across North America and Europe.He is a captivating live performer with a loyal, multi-generational following. Ani DiFranco, an early supporter of Bern’s, took him on tour with her and produced his second album,Fifty Eggs. Bern’s songs have appeared in numerous films and TV shows, and he has written original songs for the filmsWalk Hard —The Dewey Cox StoryandGet Him to the Greek, as well as the 15-songsoundtrack forEverett Ruess, Wilderness Song, a documentary produced by Jonathan Demme.A visual artist, in 2019 Bern had gallery showings of his paintings in Islamorada, Florida; New York City, and San Francisco. These shows also combined live musical performances. Bern is the author of several books, including his latest, Encounters, a collection of poetry basedon Bern’s chance meetings of such figures as Jimmy Carter, Bruce Springsteen, Hunter S. Thompson and Wilt Chamberlin. Bern hosts a podcast —10,000 Crappy Songs —a radio drama of a songwriter-turned-detective. He also runs the 24/7 internet radio station, Radio Free Bernsteinn.

Bern’s song “Talkin’ Woody, Bob, Bruce, and Dan Blues,” from the album Smartie Mine, offers a joking take on this influence, presented in the style of a Guthrie or Dylan talking blues song, and containing a spoof of a Springsteen song as well. When asked about the similarity between himself and Dylan, he once quipped, “I guess Bob Dylan was sort of the Dan Bern of the ’60’s.” Bernstein has toured with Ani DiFranco. He is known for sardonic, literary lyrics, a range of musical styles, and a folk music style paired with rock instrumentation.

Although a vein of social and political humor runs through even his earliest work, Bern’s songs became more explicitly political during the 2004 US presidential election campaign, with songs such as “Bush Must Be Defeated” and “President” highlighting his sometimes surreal political takes. His work often deals with his Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, as in songs like “Lithuania.” The name Bernstein is a reference to this ancestry; on a trip to Lithuania, he learned it was his family’s name before immigration to the United States.^[6]

Between 1997 and 2003 many of his tours and recordings featured a regular cast of backup musicians which he began calling the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy or IJBC, which Bern said was a tribute to the book Nigger by Dick Gregory.^[7] New American Language, The Swastika EP, Fleeting Days and My Country II were all released under the “Dan Bern & the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy” name. The IJBC featured longtime Bern producer and collaborator Wil Masisak on keyboards, drums, guitar and bass; Eben “Eby Brown” Grace on guitar and pedal steel; Brian “Slim Nickel” Schey on bass and guitar; Paul Kuhn on cellocaster; Anna Phoebe on electric violin; and drummers Colin “Spanky” Mahoney and Jake Coffin.

In early 2007, Bern’s Breathe won in The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album.^[8]

In 2009, 2010 and 2012, Bern played with Common Rotation from Los Angeles, California which consists of vocals, guitar, banjo, trumpet, saxophone, and other instruments. Their concert in September 2009 at the M Bar in Los Angeles, was released as a live album in the spring of 2010 called “Live in Los Angeles” with about half the songs Bern playing solo and the other half including Common Rotation.

Bern’s songwriting skills were used in the biopic parody film Walk Hard where he helped write 16 songs for the movie. Many of these songs made the theatrical cut of the film including the Dylanesque “Royal Jelly,” and the melodic “(Have You Heard the News) Dewey Cox Died.” He continues to write songs for films, including Get Him to the Greek and Father’s Day.^[9] Bern’s song “One Dance” was also included in Kasdan’s first film Zero Effect. Bern wrote “Swing Set,” a duet with Emmylou Harris, for the off Broadway production of “Family Week” directed by Jonathan Demme and wrote the title song for Demme’s documentary Jimmy Carter Man From Plains.

In 2012, Bern released two studio recordings of American roots music: “Drifter,” featuring a duet with Emmylou Harris, and “Doubleheader,” an 18-song tribute to baseball culled from close to 30 years of songwriting and recorded at Bob Weir’s TRI Studios in Marin County.

In 2004, Bern published the novel “Quitting Science” and in 2012 “Cleaver the Gronk” under the pen name Cunliffe Merriwether.

Dan, an avid baseball fan, has written several baseball songs including “Johnny Sylvester Comes Back to Visit the Babe” in which he put words to music to the legendary story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester.^[10]

In 2019, Bern released the album “Regent Street.” [

Orit Shimoni

“I am in love with words. They can contain love and they can change people. They can shape our understanding, and they can be our weapon, or our guard. They grant us with humour, and self-reflection. Words are what give breath meaning, and they are one of the only things we have that will survive past our corporeal demise. Our words and our voices. Let us use both with sincerity, wisdom, passion, and creativity, and by that I mean love.”

Orit Shimoni, formerly also known as Little Birdie, is “one of the nation’s most alluring vocalists,” {The Calgary Herald} and “one of the most lyrically impactful vocalists” {Beatroute Magazine}.   Previously a teacher and academic, Israeli/Canadian Orit (pronounced O’reet) became a full-time touring solo artist after releasing two, highly acclaimed albums in Montreal.    She moved to Berlin to write and record her third album, and after that decided to live out of a suitcase so she could pursue touring and recording with her entire focus.   She has been officially ‘on the road’ for nearly nine years, no fixed address.
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With her recent release of  a ninth album, and the tenth on the way, Orit’s songs and performances draw diverse audiences into her profound and universal themes and her storytelling talent, with writing compared to that of Leonard Cohen, and a voice that has been compared to Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, and KD Lang.  But Orit is a truly unique and prolific artist. In a sea of predictable writing and ‘pretty’ voices. She stands out as a special force with important relateable messages, and a disarming sense of humour.
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All of her albums have achieved international radio play and highly favourable press, and have each charted on Canadian college radio.   Two more albums have been started for future release.
A special voice in a turbulent time, Orit Shimoni’s music is not to be missed