Why does he look like he ' s 13 years old ? <| sep |> Dan Bern artist picimg 2 . akamaized . netiu 252 b 082 ce 7356 ef 41 baa 3 f 195 b 6 b 973 c 4 e 1 . png Dan Bern aka Bernstein , a name under which he sometimes performs is a guitarist , singer , songwriter , and painter . His music is often compared to that of Bob Dylan , Woody Guthrie , Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello . His 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 Dylan song as well . Bernstein has also 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 . He also wrote the novel Quitting Science 2004 under the pen name Cunliffe Merriwether and wrote the preface under his own name . Although a vein of social and political humor runs though even his earliest work , Bern ' s work 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 . Bern is reflexively literate , in the style of his favorite authors , including L . A . ' s legendary bohemians Charles Bukowski and John Fante , urbane fantasist James Thurber , and yarnspinning humorist Ring Lardner . He is in love with the power of words to turn on themselves , to frolic , to bite , and his strong , friendly voice can go from earnest to ferocious within seconds . Being captivated by Dan is the easy part describing his music to the noninitiated is more difficult . One journalist tried t o p i c a l poeticalsarcasticpunkfolk . An admirable effort , further elaborated by the New York Times He veers from comedy to anger , conjectures to shaggydog stories he takes sidelong approaches to theology , science fiction , consumer culture , art , love and baseball . Read more on Last . fm . Bern 34 , 365 listeners , 464 , 416 plays tags folk , singersongwriter , indie , seen live , political Please downvote if incorrect ! Selfdeletes if score is 0 .