"Before You Go" is a solo acoustic guitar performance from Mike Stern's 1988 album Time in Place, a rare departure from the electric guitar work for which Stern is primarily known. This intimate ballad, composed by Stern, unfolds in D minor at a gentle tempo, revealing a side of his musicianship that his fusion work rarely showcased. Without a rhythm section or horns, the full harmonic and melodic depth of Stern's playing is exposed, demonstrating his command of chord voicings, fingerpicking technique, and melodic invention on the acoustic instrument. The performance has a reflective, almost classical quality, with Stern weaving single-note lines through rich harmonic textures. The track stands as one of the most personal statements on Time in Place, stripping away the amplification and effects that characterized his electric work to reveal the jazz guitar foundation underlying his fusion approach. Before You Go demonstrates that beneath the distortion and rock energy, Stern possessed the touch and sensitivity of a traditional jazz guitarist, a quality rooted in his studies with Pat Metheny at Berklee College of Music.
