Artist description Barbara DeStefano is a singer/charting songwriter/lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist originally from New York City. Recent gigs have included Harrahs Casino in Atlantic City, and the LPGA womens Golf Tournement.

Music Style folk/pop/rock/world

Musical Influences Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, Bach, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Carol King

Similar Artists All of the above.

Artist History Started playing guitar at the age of 6. Comes from a long line of musicians. Grandfather was a musician in the NYC Speakeasys in the 1920's.

Group Members Barbara DeStefano for this CD. Playing live, goes under the name Le Girlz.

Instruments guitar, bass, keyboards, mandolin, drums, banjo...programming..

Albums up-coming, Barbara DeStefano

Press Reviews Barbara DeStefano (Untitled) Sir William's Music (Independent CD) email: Xanadu2469@aol.com Selling guitars and related instruments puts me in the enviable position of meeting singer-songwriters and musicians before they become famous. At this stage in their lives the notion of swapping a newly minted CD for a Mandolin Brothers T-shirt (a common ploy on my part) is nearly irresistible and mutually beneficial. I am a CD junkie ("I brake for used CD stores") and love hearing new music. Barbara DeStefano has been our customer since she was a teenager. She'd come to the shop and play her tunes while she tried out guitars. Overhearing and enjoying these songs I'd provide her with encouragement – I was, at all times, hearing the songs of a talented and dedicated writer and always made sure she was aware of just how good a writer-singer-musician I felt she was. A decade later, coming up from New Jersey now, she revisited the showroom with a completed, self-titled CD. "Let me know what you think." What I think is that we have a major recording artist here who now working on making "the right connections" and getting this CD into the hands of artists who will record these fine songs. Her 10-cut, 35-minute master is a masterpiece. It begins with a sixty-second Elizabethan-flavored dance performed on two mandolins, guitars and percussion, and one's initial thought might be that this must be an album of medieval music. This short instrumental is entitled "Raritan Bay" and on the cover of the album is an inverted, rusted-out rowboat on the shore of Raritan Bay, which body of water borders the south and southeastern corners of Staten Island. The rowboat resides in a state of decomposition, since it is a metaphor for the subtext of most of the songs within which depict a life in turmoil – relationships capsizing, love on the rocks or going under, along with some songs of renewed hope."You Bring Me Peace," for example, says there are "no regrets from love gone wrong, from every tune without a song [you] led me down the roads that took me from the dark to the dawn." With the turn of a chord, from F to C to G to B7 to Em Ms. DeStefano convinces us in this first vocalthat she is experienced beyond her years in the craft of songwriting and excels at it. Harmonies abound, and the tasteful use of a synthesizer to simulate strings in the last chord serves to represent in musical terms the "warmth of the sun" which infuses the singer with optimism. "In it for the LongHaul" is an "attitude" approach to story telling in song, last heard (and revered) on Linda Ronstadt's golden age album _Get Closer_ in the song of the same name by Jonathan Carroll. "Don't let one bad day ruin the love we made: stay in it for the long haul." "Flight from the Andes" is an instrumental rooted in the romance languages, a duet of twin acoustic guitars along with synth, bass and drums. "I Won't Give Up On You" is a song of support – a little confusing perhaps, since it's written in the first person and one wonders if the writer is autobiographicalwhen she says "The world would love to know you've given up your dreams; I won't give up on you, remember I am in control, God knows I'm strong enough I won't give up on you." Is it you? Is it me?Nell Gwynne was "an actress of the stage" and the singer tells us that in previous life she was this mistress of the king where she was "happier than I am now, as free as the winds, but I've lived sheltered in the glow. You took chances and I'm a bit too careful now." "Don't You Ever Say Goodbye" is the archetypal "modern ballad" suitable for inclusion in the next major Walt Disney animated flick about a mythical or fictional figure with heroic aspirations. Ms. DeStefano is every bit at home in its non-acoustic showygenre as she is in the more conventional guitar-based singer-songwriter mode and yet she knows when to throw in a fancy electric guitar lick that would make George Harrison blush from the compliment to his playing style. We meet a woman looking through pictures and thinking back on the loss of an important relationship in "Every Bridge I Cross" in which the bridge is a metaphor for the road to self-rediscovery. Harmonies are three-part and instrumentation is, as it is throughout this entire album, as sophisticated as that favorite Eric Clapton arrangement that you come from work and put on the CD player before you even take your shoes off. The musical structure is, as well, multilayered and complex. Rounding out the album is a lament titled "Apache Tear" which juxtaposes an American Indian legend of spirits turning to tears to stone on the cheeks of the wives of lost warriors with that of Sarah, a woman who wants her unreliable lover to see that "there's no one out there whose love is stronger than the love in me."Liner notes are non-existent and the front cover is a one-sided color photocopy. The back cover is a list of the songs, a copyright notice, and the simple mind-boggling line that "All instruments, songs and voices are by Barbara DeStefano." Wow! I had listened to this album 8 times before I realized that it says that. I realize that many individualsnow own their own mini-studio and take weeks or months to record, all by themselves, layer by layer. In this instance the performance sounds like a well-rehearsed professional band in top form, and the vocals are flawless. Barbara DeStefano may well turn out to be the east coast Stephen Bishop –- she knows how to tell a captivating story in song -- she writes catchy, memorable melodies, and can arrange, harmonize, record and mix like few others who have wandered through our doorway seeking the right instrument on which to do all this. Someday, when her career is in orbit (as it will be),her record company will re-release this album as "Barbara DeStefano: The EarlyYears." You can, of course, buy it now and enjoy it during the interveningperiod.Stan Jay Stan Jay is president and owner of Mandolin Brothers, Ltd. a world-renowned guitar store in Staten Island, NY.

Location Brick, NJ - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).