Eric Sardinas is a good, even great, electric slide player, and his Dobro skills are equally as impressive.
His band on Black Pearls, Paul Loranger on bass and Mike Dupke on drums, is also quite good.
The problem here is the material.
The songs, all written by Sardinas, are at the worst end of blues cliché.
They sound good and rock hard, but in the end, you've heard all this said before, and probably better.
Granted, blues feeds on recycled lyrics, and it is undoubtedly hard to find a new way to say "I've been down so long I'm gonna leave you," but it can be done (Otis Taylor comes immediately to mind).
The highlights here -- the cheerful pop-blues of "Big Red Line," the bluegrass-paced Dobro work on "Old Smyrm Road" -- come on songs that step a little bit outside the blues-boogie template.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flames of LoveEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 27 MB |
| 2 | Same Ol' WayEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 28 MB |
| 3 | BittersweetEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 4 | Ain't No CrimeEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 04:21 | 9 MB | 32 MB |
| 5 | Big Red LineEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 02:46 | 6 MB | 20 MB |
| 6 | Liar's Dice BluesEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 06:28 | 14 MB | 44 MB |
| 7 | Black PearlsJohn Coltrane, Eric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:55 | 8 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | Sorrow's KitchenEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 9 | Four RosesEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 24 MB |
| 10 | Tenfold TroubleEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:52 | 8 MB | 28 MB |
| 11 | Wicked WaysEric Sardinas | Eric Sardinas | Play | 03:27 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 12 | Old Smyrna Road | Eric Sardinas | Play | 04:02 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 48 mins | 110 MB | |||||
| 48 mins | 344 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Priscila Bara | Art Direction |
| 2 | Mauricio Cajueiro | Engineer, Mixing |
| 3 | John Coltrane | Composer |
| 4 | Mike Duple | Drums |
| 5 | Chris Frazier | Musician |
| 6 | Bernie Grundman | Mastering |
| 7 | Keith Johnson | Programming |
| 8 | Eddie Kramer | Mixing, Producer |
| 9 | Paul Loranger | Bass |
| 10 | Michael Mesker | Enhanced CD Design |
| 11 | Eric Sardinas | Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 12 | Enrico Sesselego | Assistant Engineer |
| 13 | Neil Zlozower | Photography |
Eric Sardinas
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |