Cool Tourist (January 2022 – translated)

The pandemic has also hit John "Chico" Finn from Bovina, NY, the leader of the band Esquela. After four albums, mostly recorded live in the studio, he had to connect all the musicians online for "A Sign From God" in order to to create a compact roots rock sound from his basic tracks, which he recorded with acoustic guitar and vocals on his MacBook. Mediator was producer Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, (known for his work with Joan Jett, the Del-Lords and Steve Earle) who mixed the individual instruments in his home studio.

Rebecca Frame, who is also active with guitarist Brian Shafer in the band Becca Frame and the Tall Boys in New York State, takes on the female part in Esquela. Mike Ricciardi (dr), Keith Christopher (b) and Matt Woodin (g) complete the band project.

John Finn's songs cover a wide thematic field: it's about critical and ironic observations of the present ("Not In My Backyard", "First World Problems"), it's about historical events such as the American Civil War with the Battle of Bullrun, 1861 , but also about the SS massacre in Oradura, France in 1944 and about timeless problems such as disappointed love, hate and racism. The song list even ends with a poem set to music by the Russian writer Konstantin Simonov (1915 - 1979), addressed to his girlfriend in World War II: "Wait for me and I'll return".

The musical execution cannot always keep up with these lyrical ambitions, arrangements and composition appear somewhat predictable and uniform. The same applies to the vocal presence of the two lead singers. Esquela (which means obituary in English) present woodcut-like indie roots rock with minor borrowings from CCR, The Band, Tom Petty or John Hall, without ever reaching this level.

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