[1] After graduating, Kahn moved to New Orleans where he worked as a bar pianist[2] and was first introduced to modern Jewish music.

[5] Daniel Kahn coined the word "Verfremdungsklezmer", meaning "alienation klezmer", to describe their music, in reference to Bertolt Brecht's theory of Verfremdungseffekt.

[8] The Painted Bird have had songs about varied political topics, such as Nakam, a group of Holocaust survivors led by Abba Kovner who conspired to kill six million Germans in revenge for the Holocaust,[3] and the government response to Hurricane Katrina, set to the tune of Dos Lid fun Titanik, a 1912 Yiddish song originally about the sinking of the Titanic.

[6] Kahn also sings songs by Franz Josef Degenhardt, David Edelstadt, and Mark Warshawsky.

[12] His work has dealt the issue of memory around both the Nazi Regime, and of the DDR (especially Ostalgie and the Berlin Wall[13]) in Germany.