The album "Dan Bern" was Bernstein's first full-length work, put out in 1997 on the Sony/Work label. On the cover is a blurred red and white photograph of the singer playing a guitar and walking down the street.

Bernstein has joked that he regrets this album's name, because now, having changed his name, he cannot erase the fact that "Dan Bern" is a thing as well as a person, as in, "Can I have a Dan Bern please?".