Dan Bern: Smartie Mine : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Armed with an acoustic guitar, a harmonica and a penchant for nasal rasping that is equal parts Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello, singer-songwriter Dan Bern manipulates his obsessions -- sports, romance, cultural icons, delusions of grandeur -- into one delirious, kaleidoscopic vision. The cultishly admired Dan Bern (1997) and 50 Eggs (1998) confirmed his idiosyncratic smarts -- honest, thoughtful and usually hilarious. Bern's buoyant touch bogs down in spots under the weight of Smartie Mine, a double CD of new material, two numbers from 50 Eggs and odd covers (like a light-ska syncopation of "Cocaine Blues/Blue Jay Way"). But his lyrical deftness is stronger than ever when he muses that Charles Manson would have been taken less seriously if he had kept his real name (on "Krautmeyer") or stages a hysterical intervention for Bruce Springsteen's ailing career. Smartie Mine showcases Bern's gift for seeing the whole in the part ("Crosses"), the poignancy in quotidian nonevents (in the speedy, generous lilt of "Little Russian Girl") and -- his favorite bugaboo -- the frustration of the hard-working artist in a world speckled with effortless genius (poor "Joe van Gogh"). (RS 804)

ARION BERGER