Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Winery Dogs, The
Label: Loud & Proud Records
Released: 2013
Runtime: 60:18
Rating: 4.5/5
Three rock supermen have recently joined forces in a full hour-long, richly layered musical mash-up: Richie Kotzen (ex-Poison, ex-Mr. Big), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, Niacin. PSMS, Talas, David Lee Roth, Steve Vai) and former Dream Theater bomber Mike Portnoy (Flying Colors, PSMS, Adrenaline Mob). The new super rock band is called The Winery Dogs, and it knows absolutely no restraint once it gets down to work.
The basic mold for the songwriting is Kotzen’s, and it comes straight out of how he builds his solo studio records. Especially the newer ones! The Mother’s Family Head Reunion? The parallel makes sense mostly in terms of mood. Kotzen brings in a song (with lyrics). That’s the basic “case”, or let’s say the foundation, which the three of them then build into a full track together. In other words, Kotzen’s idea. That’s the base from which the unique insight of the musical story called The Winery Dogs grows. Kotzen has always combined, to great effect, the expressive power of blues, Motown and soul with the muscle of rock, while subtly weaving in his remarkable feel for a lead melody you can actually grab onto. But so the whole thing doesn’t turn out too simple and too easy to figure out by ear, there are Portnoy and Sheehan, a crushing rhythm section whose swaggering punch smashes up the predictable feints of Kotzen’s songwriting and, in the end, gives the whole story a completely unique musical look in the galaxy!
Right in the first instrumental section of the opener Elevate, Sheehan and Portnoy get the perfect alibi to rip the main theme down to its prime factors! Don’t be surprised if your jaw is closer to your ankles than your nostrils at that moment. Kotzen would definitely have had a new studio album out this year if he hadn’t jumped into this alliance with The Winery Dogs. The Winery Dogs debut proves it, boasting an incredible variety of Kotzen riffs and melodies. They burn in a tangible, concise form packed with substance, which shows that Kotzen is in outstanding songwriting shape and driven by exceptional creative inspiration. Kotzen carries that blues in him, soaked in pain and veiled in obscurity, which comes through in his distinctive, unmistakably colored voice. This album proves once again that over the past few years Kotzen has grown into an exceptional singer. We can say Kotzen has caught up with the league of the most recognizable musicians who have stunned everyone by combining two roles in one person. (The sadly departed) Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Sting (The Police), Buck Dharma (Blue Oyxster Cult), Geddy Lee (Rush), Leslie West (Mountain), John Wetton (Asia), Burke Sheeley (Budgie), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Eric Clapton (The Cream), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd),… and the list goes on. And we can safely place Kotzen in the league of these musical oddballs who are today the big gentlemen of the rock ‘n’ roll carousel. They’re born geniuses whose expressive character in their band is so strong that the band’s whole musical statement rests squarely on them.
Back to The Winery Dogs. On songs like I’m No Angel, Damaged, The Dying, and especially the closing Regret, where Kotzen clings to the piano with real devotion, Sheehan and Portnoy wisely and dutifully hold back from the “note shaking”, leaving room for Richie Kotzen’s incredible passion and emotion to dominate. Kotzen is brilliant. At these points he knows exactly how to ration and place his guitar tones. Nothing in the mix overshadows him on the songs mentioned.
Still, the gourmets come to The Winery Dogs for the jam culture experience! And that’s the first and biggest treat on tonight’s menu. It’s that fun spirit of spontaneous letting go that brings in progressive looseness. You could even say it “loosens up” Kotzen’s songwriting principle (Kotzen learned most of this as a teenager by listening closely to Hall & Oates). Given the reputation of the trio in The Winery Dogs, you can’t predict the results in advance. They can all play whatever they want. And more. So you never know, not for a second, where the pleasures and surprises of these three great virtuosos are hiding. You can feel how Sheehan and Portnoy often drag Kotzen along into racing guitar passages. And at the full speed of his solo escapades, Sheehan doubles him with harmonies from the famous rattle of his bass. On equal terms. The playing speed is the same this time, no matter the thickness of the strings. Sheehan is simply a one-of-a-kind planetary figure in this respect. Kotzen goes wild in the solos. That wildness has never stood out so clearly on his studio albums (Six Feet Deeper) as it does here. But apparently a bit more “roughness” on his part sits really well next to the exemplary, typical playing of his colossal team-mates Portnoy and Sheehan.
A single song can run through several mood switches. The album is extremely dynamic in this regard. Take, for example, the pronounced atmospheric contrast in the almost doom-like verse of Time Machine, which is followed by a building »flash of light« as the melody develops through the pre-chorus into an infectious chorus that gets under your skin instantly. It’s easily one of the catchiest on the album.
Not to ramble on. The Winery Dogs, that alliance of top-class musicians made up of Kotzen, Sheehan and Portnoy, has found its new home here, one where they coexist ideally! It’s a fair question whether they ever lived together so harmoniously in the bands where they left their lasting, indelible mark. Be it Kotzen’s stints with Poison and Mr Big, or Sheehan’s in Mr. Big, not to mention Mike Portnoy. He has found himself with The Winery Dogs. Apart from the projects and bands with Neal Morse, I dare say Portnoy has never felt as comfortable in his career as he does right now in The Winery Dogs. Don’t be surprised if he admits it to you in person over a beer sometime. Dream Theater? Who? He’ll forget about them even more easily.
It’s great to realize that neither Sheehan’s nor Portnoy’s solo wildness leaves the record feeling oversaturated. All three musicians get equal spotlight on the album and don’t “overshadow” each other in their interpretations. Hence the verdict of full harmony. Everything flows smoothly and rolls along like waves on the album. From subtly calm moments and moments of tight togetherness, where the trio is loud but melodically resilient, to literally »vulgar, obscene instrumental excesses« (to put it nicely) acrobatics full of improvisational madness, the kind most inhabitants of our galaxy can only dream about. And that, next to all the mastery of Kotzen’s songwriting, is still the main trump card behind this record’s huge appeal.
»The Winery Dogs« is passionate, hot, vividly charged with emotion. An album of superlatives. An album of unique charisma and concise, authentic expression that doesn’t stop thrilling from the first second to the last. A top-shelf product that only the world’s best musicians can deliver. No less, no more.
Lineup
Richie Kotzen – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Billy Sheehan – bass guitar, backing vocals
Mike Portnoy – drums, vocals, backing vocals
Production
The Wintery Dogs
Tracklist
1. Elevate
2. Desire
3. We Are One
4. I’m No Angel
5. The Other Side
6. You Saved Me
7. Not Hopeless
8. One More Time
9. Damaged
10. Six Feet Deeper
11. Criminal
12. The Dying
13. Regret
