I’d heard all about The Winery Dogs from every musician friend that I know. I was very interested in hearing them, but for some reason, I didn’t get the album right away. The band is Billy Sheehan on bass, Richie Kotzen on guitar and Mike Portnoy, on drums. Richie Kotzen is the guitarist who briefly replaced CC Deville in Poison. Mike Portnoy, of course is Dream Theater’s founder/original drummer, and Billy Sheehan is the Steve Vai of bass guitar, of Mr. Big. I was expecting Mr Big meets Dream Theater with kind of a glam feel. I was wrong. What I got was a pleasant surprise. On top of its classic feel, it  has a much more modern feel, balancing influences from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Also, Richie Kotzen is a phenomenal guitarist, who was either holding back in Poison, or he did lots of practicing since then. The man duels with Sheehan, and some of the solos and song arrangements are nothing short of spectacular. Something you would expect from the great guitarists. I listen to this, and I realize that Richie Kotzen is an extremely underrated guitarist. He’s a pretty damn good singer too. And of course, Portnoy and Sheehan make a hell of a combo rhythm section.

I think that the most amazing thing about this album is the fact that 11 of 13 songs were written by Kotzen, Sheehan, and Portnoy collectively. It shows. The other 2 songs; Damaged and Regret were written by Kotzen.

The first song on the album, Elevate has a very uplifting feel and message. It’s a fun song that would make time pass on a long road trip. It is a very good opener for the album because the entire album is that way. The video for Elevate is just the three band members playing, but we see something about Kotzen that sets him apart from lots of other guitarists. He does not use a pic. He uses his fingers like Mark Knoppler. This means that he is fingerpicking or tapping those fast leads that he does throughout the album. And to do that intricate picking while singing is impressive. Time Machine has a kind of dark Deep Purpleesque feel to it. But the solo at the end of the song makes my head explode considering Kotzen is finger picking on it.

While it does have a modern rock/metal feel to it, it also has the feel of metal that has been AWOL since the late 80’s to early 90’s. For example, Damaged is a power ballad, that has roots and influence in 80’s metal, and even a Soundgarden feel, but flows like a ballad that you might hear on the radio today. Not to mention Kotzen’s beautiful guitar solo.

The Winery Dogs basically have all the talent of Dream Theater, but the album much easier to listen to for non musician fans. Yes, this is a ‘supergroup,’ but one thing I like about this over other recent ‘supergroup’ outings is that while the songs are brilliant in musical composition, they are easy to listen to. They aren’t just each individual member showcasing themselves. All the songs sound different, yet they all have the feel that the same band wrote them. That’s one thing that makes this ‘supergroup’ more appealing to me than others. The Winery Dogs have a chemistry that makes them sound like they have been together as a band for a decade, and I hope they are. I’m waiting for them to come to my area in concert, and I’m already anxiously awaiting their next album. So, if you havent yet, go pick this one up. You will wear it out.