**1/2 Dan Bern

DAN BERN

(Sony/Work)

It's hard to know how to take Dan Bern. He comes out swinging on the first cut of his debut with "Jerusalem," the sort of solo acoustic, free-associative, surrealistic narrative Bob Dylan perfected and then turned his back on 30 years ago. Not only that, but in the song Bern declares himself the Messiah, only furthering the association with Dylan. Well, maybe he's just poking fun. He ends the number Philip Roth-style, with a wink to Portnoy, revealing it's all just between him and his therapist. And since he's had his way with Dylan, he does Elvis Costello ("I'm Not the Guy"), Leonard Cohen ("Rome," a gloomy, cinematic waltz replete with French accordion), and Van Morrison ("Queen," a hilarious send-up of Morrison's vocal style that steals the piano arrangement from Dylan's version of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready"). Maybe Bern just wears his influences on his sleeve.

When he avoids the Dylan-esque stuff, he shines on folk-punk numbers that skewer pop culture. "Marilyn" imagines a happier Monroe married to Henry Miller. "Too Late To Die Young" looks at the likes of Elvis Presley, Pete Rose, and Marlon Brando compared with James Dean and finds their longevity wanting. And "Go to Sleep" is a sarcastic bit that imagines bar codes on fetuses; it opens with the great line "Enough with this throat singing already/If you want to sing two notes at once, why don't you do like everyone else/Get a multi-track machine."

-- Seth Rogovoy