Supergroups come in all shapes and sizes. Take The Winery Dogs, for instance. Drummer Mike Portnoy gained widespread recognition as a co-founder of Dream Theater but he also made crucial contributions to a number of other successful acts such as Avenged Sevenfold, Adrenaline Mob and Metal Allegiance. Bassist Billy Sheehan is an ever-smiling and good-humoured class musician with an impressive CV that includes such illustrious names as David Lee Roth, Mr Big and Sons of Apollo, where he also teamed up with Portnoy. For The Winery Dogs they found a vocalist/guitarist in Ritchie Kotzen, who first made a name for himself as a solo artist before joining Poison and co-founding Mr Big. Also, he recently released an excellent record with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith. The Winery Dogs formed in New York in 2012 and launched their self-titled debut the following year. With tracks varying from hard rockers to blues rock and more intimate ballads, they immediately caught the attention of rock-loving audiences all over the world. With their debut being so well-received there was a lot of pressure to come up with an even better sophomore album and ‘Hot Streak’ (2015) did the job. Their most recent slab ‘III’ (2023) is their best work yet, as we will undoubtedly discover this summer. #GMM23
