The legendary rock trio, "The Winery Dogs” once again proved that there is still a lot more to go further in hard rock and blues rock music fellas! This power trio features a beast on the drums -Mike Portnoy, the irreplaceable Billy Sheehan on the bass guitar and of course, the real deal guitarist and superb vocalist Richie Kotzen. "The Winery Dogs" released their latest album under the name "Hot Streak" in October 2015(the album originally contains 13 tracks and lasts nearly 66 minutes). The album already debuted at no. 30 on The Billboard 200 chart.
“Hot Streak” is the 2nd album of “The Winery Dogs.” There are many great power riffs and themes in there.The first single is “Oblivion”. This track is a great “introduction” to the content of the album and also showing its complexity. It is a pure enjoyment especially for “technical and passage” lovers and fans, here I would also mention the title track “Hot Streak”. One of my favorite tracks on the album is “Fire”. It is an impressive acoustic rock ballad, and I like the sound of the song and its ambient. It has a thoughtful lyrics, pleasing harmony, solo parts and excellent backing vocals. The vocal performance of Richie Kotzen on this album (but also overall of course) is absolutely stunning, and it is something to be admired.
In one interview Richie Kotzen said this for the Band:To me, The Winery Dogs actually reminds me of what I do as a solo artist but with input from other musicians that are coming from a different angle than I am. We have common ground because we’re all fans of classic rock. Obviously, Mike Portnoy is really rooted in progressive metal, and Billy has a strong, innovative stature in the whole shred guitar movement. There are other influences there at play that are cool, that gives The Winery Dogs their own kind of sound. Even though in the end I’m the lead singer and the lead guitar player and a lot of the songs we do can kind of parallel music that I’ve released in the past, with their influence in the writing aspect of it; it has a more aggressive, more… how do I say it? In-your-face kind of approach.
*** One extra information for the name of the band. The Winery Dogs are actually dogs that guard the vineyards to keep pests away, and they prevent them from eating all the grapes.All of this sounded interesting for Richie Kotzen, and that is how he proposed the name.
In my opinion, this is one of the greatest trio in the music worldwide. An album like “Hot Streak” can happen only with world-class musicians and artists. Enjoy!
