By Dane Anderson, Staff Writer 

Walking into the Lucky Lounge on a Saturday night is a little like walking into a small New York nightclub in the1950s. 

There’s no cigarette smoke, but there are neon lights, a well-stocked bar and a seating pit in front of the stage straight out of a Frank Sinatra movie. On stage, a blonde is crooning sultry, sophisticated songs backed by a knockout band. The audience is mesmerized.

Beth Black owns the Lucky Lounge stage. She’s strikingly beautiful and glows with passion for her music. One look and listen, and you know she’s a woman in charge of her life and the world around her. 

Black’s voice is powerful, direct, beautiful and addictive. Her music is polished, an elusive mix of rock, pop and worldly blues. It comes straight from the heart, straight from her experience. 

The music is a modern woman’s solid advice. People listen with a smile on their faces, and soon they find themselves nodding their heads in agreement. They want more. 

“My lyrics are for us young kids in our second youth,” said the 40-year-old Black. “They tell of romance, love stories, heartache. The older you get, the more you know who you are. That feels good to me.”

A native Texan, Black spent her childhood in Midland, the daughter of an oilman. Her natural singing and acting talent got her acceptance in the Walnut Hill Performing Arts High School in New England, and she attended college in Washington, D.C. and refined her vocal skills at the American Musical Dramatic Academy in New York City. 

In her early 20s, she left for Los Angeles, where she found work in television, film and improvisational comedy with Second City. 

The birth of her daughter, CJ Lede, brought her back to Texas and to Austin in 1994. She began performing around town, took a long professional hiatus and came back to music full steam earlier this year. 

Black will release her fifth CD, “Everything Unsaid,” at a party at Lucky Lounge Saturday night from 6:30-8 p.m. The engaging songstress said it took her until her fourth release, “Nine Stories,” to hit her creative stride.

“I always wanted to write and sing music,” she said. “Women aren’t fully baked until their late 20s and early 30s. That’s when I started writing my own songs, at around 32.”

While her voice is beautiful and her band is tight, driven by a strong beat courtesy of Black’s talented drummer husband, Keith Robinson, it is perhaps the woman’s lyrics that earn her such passionate fans. Her words flow like poetry with a simple wisdom that rings true. One song, “For After I’m Gone,” she wrote for her daughter.

“I am trying to tell her, to show her through words, that if you just let go, if you just relax into life, everything is yours,” Black said. 

Black moved back to Texas because she wanted to raise CJ here. She picked Austin as home for the town’s creative element. 

“I like the soul of Austin; I love the synergy here,” she said. “I’m real passionate about a lot of stuff. It’s OK to be passionate in Austin. It’s good to be creative here.”

Black lets her creativity out through more than just her music. She owns a successful line of jewelry under her own name. Her pieces combine fossils, crystals and rocks in their natural state with faceted and polished gem stones. They are definitely bold and distinctive, and they have a certain feel when worn. 

“They’re just very sensual,” agent and jewelry fan Jill McGucken said, fingering the Black necklace she wears as her own trademark. “They have a lot of presence. They have a nice heavy chain that makes a good sound. It feels grounding. It makes a statement. It’s real. It’s goddess jewelry.”

“Fossils and rocks possess a beauty that hasn’t been overworked by human hands,” Black said. “You can have a whole conversation with a piece of jewelry without saying a word.” 

Black’s creative energy seems to have no limits. She and Robinson helped design their unique home in Rollingwood. Set against a quiet Hill Country backdrop, the house is a blend of materials and perspectives. It showcases the human spirit of imagination. 

The home features simple, industrial lines and inexpensive materials embellished with unpredictable, luxurious accessories. 

Take the opportunity to catch Black and her band at the Lucky Lounge while the iron is hot. She and Robinson will be moving to New York City at the end of June to take advantage of opportunities to expand her music career and jewelry line. 

Black said she will continue to offer her thoughts and emotions to the rest of the world, one song at a time. She hopes she will always be exploring, digging deeper and deeper within herself. Success will come or not come.

“I’m not competitive really,” she said. “I’m just happy to be playing the game. If I lose, I don’t care. I just want to be at the party.”