A flame, or perhaps more aptly, a puddle that appeared briefly after an electrical storm, reflected some weird and mesmerizing colors, and evaporated in the next light of day, Karen Stern is known but to a few dying hippies in Santa Fe, NM and Santa Cruz, CA, and one or two brave former musicians on the East Coast. Winner of specially designed awards in the Northern California Songwriters' Association in 1996, Karen went on to sporadic coffeehouse and local radio fame in the Santa Cruz/San Jose, CA area in the late nineties and early 2000s.
Karen's lyrics and poetry sparkle with wit, irony and mirth and her music is sprinkled with soul, funk and daring offkey splurges. She tackles a wide variety of themes from leg-covering frustrations to dating meltdowns caused by human genome deficiency. She has performed with outstanding myspace denizen Patrick J. Cooper as well as dobro player extraordinaire 'Felonius' Smith (cdbaby.com),famed 'Unicorn Killer' recording artist Glenn MacPherson, and San Francisco's 'Woodyz' drummer Amy Anderson.
Karen's CD 'Virgin Mirth' is available on cdbaby.com. Karen doesn't do much performing these days as she is battling Morgellons' Disease. She'd appreciate your healing thoughts!
NOTE:
Karen left this planet on October 29, 2007. Her friends and family miss her and wish her happiness on her next journey. Play on, Karen....
Karen Stern was a rare talent, a songwriter who could write lyrics of biting satire and combine them with unusual melodies from a wide variety of musical genres - sort of a female Tom Lehrer with a guitar instead of a piano. And she didn't just strum her guitar - she was a pretty good finger-picker too!
Unfortunately, as is so often the case with highly talented people, Karen struggled with inner demons, finally losing the battle a year ago. I miss you.
karen, you were such a nice person to me when you stayed here at the hotel and i wish i would have told you that before. i think you were a very intelligent person but that maybe you were misunderstood by a lot of people. thank you for being such a kind person to me. ill never forget what happend here and ill never forget you.
