Black Guitar

Soft pop/folk songs, with occasional "lite" blues and touches of new age, from guitarist Stern (German-born wife of jazz guitarist Mike Stern). Most tracks try too hard to be pretty and/or relaxing -- reflective mood-setters, the kind of stuff that's popular with aging classic-rockers.

Stern is best known for instrumental blues. Her voice is good and well suited to this kind of music, with only an occasional hint of her accent. She's a competent blues guitarist, which adds some flair to these tracks, but overall there's little here that's new and plenty that's old hat, and the smooth-jazz touches on 11 and 13 are just wrong.

1- Soft pop/folk. Mid/slow, warmly reflective 2- Funk lite, with a mid/fast snap. Starts slow and atmospheric
3- Slow folk
4- Slow, w/embarrassing "ghostly" backing vocals
6- Gentle blues, w/some male vocals
8- Romatically bluesy, with B3 organ & male vocal
9- Slow
11- Slow, with gruesome smooth-jazz sax.
13- Smooth jazz. Romantic, sappy

Instrumentals

5- Gentle, engaging, mid/fast. Starts slow.
7,10,12- Mid/fast guitar noodlings over slow synths. New agey, trite. Not recommended.
14- Soft, wandering, at a mid/fast pace. Athletic drum segment.