By Phillip Smith
It’s always exciting and
somewhat fulfilling when one uncovers a new musical artist to enjoy. That’s why I am never satisfied listening to
the same music over and over again. I
have to keep sampling new songs and music.
As I listen to new music, I categorize them as either top shelf, bottom
shelf, or somewhere in-between. First Offense, a nine track album from
Vince Esquire landed on one of the upper shelves in my categorization
process. This album is straight up
blues/rock at its finest. I can definitely
see why his guitar of choice is a Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Strat. Esquire, guitar master/vocalist is joined by
bassist Mark Epstein, drummer Vito Liuzzi and organist Jeff Levine on the
studio recordings, and joined by bassist Shawn Michael and drummer Josh Greenbaum
on an outstanding live bonus track of, B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby”.
Leading off with Etta Jame’s “Blues
is my Business”, we see business is good indeed as Esquire opens the doors to
his arsenal of axe-wielding skills, giving us a good taste of what’s to
follow. Slick licks riding atop a Texas Blues
groove make “Check Out Her Mama” a nice cover, sans the signature Johnny Winter
growly vocals. Check out the guitar solo
on this one.
I feel like I’m soaking in a relaxing
hot tub of nice warm Blues, when Esquire breaks into Buddy Guy’s “Leave My Girl
Alone”. Slow and emotional, this one is
Blues to the core. Also slowly steeped
in the Blues, is the heart wrenching rendition of “Tin Pan Alley”. Almost eleven minutes long, written by Bob
Geddins, and also famously covered by the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan, all I
can say about this one is ‘Wow!’. Words
can’t explain the intensity on this one.
It just needs to be heard.
Esquire is no slacker when it
comes to song writing either. “Better
This Time” has just a little bit of a country flavor added in, reminiscent of
the music of Gregg Allman. I like the
texture Levine’s Hammond organ adds to it. There’s also “Freight Train”, another
original about the pursuit of love. This
one takes me right to Beale Street, as it has Memphis blues written all over
it.
I am quite impressed with
this album, and am definitely glad I gave this one a listen to.
