In a day and age when every young, hot blues guitar player appearing on the club scene craves to be the next coming of the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan, it’s refreshing to hear one that isn’t. The 28 year old Eric Sardinas is one of those guitar players. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Sardinas learned his chops playing the blues on street corners. Moving to Los Angeles, Sardinas teamed up with bass player Paul Loranger and located drummer Scott Palacios to form his band. The look is pure black leather and blues. The large tattoo on his back is that of a python wrapped seductively around the neck of a delta blues guitar with the slogan "Respect Tradition" boldly spelled out. If you’re not scared away yet, then give this disc a good listen. This guy is serious about his guitar playing.

"Treat Me Right" is Sardinas’ initial release on Evidence Music. The disc opens with the aggressive title track. Sardinas wastes no time getting down to business. His playing is pure Johnny Winter, and the voice very similar as well. Winter himself plays a guest role on "Tired of Tryin’". The material on this disc is a mix of less mainstream blues tracks combined with seven Sardinas originals, which blend together perfectly. John Lee Hooker’s "My Baby’s Got Something" never sounded meaner, with Sardinas applying his Ted Nugent-like stranglehold on this Hooker original. Sardinas also attacks Muddy Waters’ "I Can’t be Satisfied" and Willie Dixon’s "Down in the Bottom" with everything he’s got.

The originals are still strongly Winter-influenced. "Cherry Bomb" demonstrates the hollow-bodied slide guitar sound at it’s very best, while "Give Me Love" is gritty and aggressive. The slide guitar plays a major role in most of the tracks on this disc. If Johnny Winter were still in his 20’s today, this may very well have been his sound. Sardinas manhandled his guitar with pure emotion on every track.