A couple of years ago, I bought some tickets to go see Dan Bern. I'd never bought one of his albums but a good friend kept sending me bootlegs of unreleased stuff and the crap to quality ratio finally hit the point that I thought that if I saw him live, I'd probably get to hear a bunch of really fun stuff. I mean, how could I not after listening to a song like "Shakespeare's Got a Gun"? Really, that one is just the tip of a very small icerberg.
In person Dan Bern seemed to be shitfaced and self indulgent in the sort of way you can be when you're up at three in the morning on a college campus talking about current events, and I was would have felt totally burned (pun only slightly intended) by the whole experience, if Erin McKeown hadn't opened up for him.
Grand is a less introspective-folky and more early rock 'n' roll, expository album than her previous ones, and I think long time fans took it as the harbinger of an eventual sell-out (which may or may not have happened on We Will Become Like Birds but I've talked to fans of that one, too). Still, I like the album from wall to wall, and I heartily recommend it and her.
--W.
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