Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (May 11, 2015) — The Ponte Vedra Concert Hall welcomes classic hard rock trio The Winery Dogs on Wednesday, October 14, 2015. Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m.

It would be easy to call The Winery Dogs a supergroup: Vocalist and guitarist Richie Kotzen made his mark with Poison and Mr. Big, bassist Billy Sheehan has been rocking for decades with Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big and others, and drummer Mike Portnoy was the co-founder of progressive metal superstars Dream Theater. But The Winery Dogs are so much more than a supergroup. Supergroups are usually short-lived entities composed of gifted players that jam out for little while and then quickly record with the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle. That's certainly not the case with The Winery Dogs, a cohesive, well-rounded classic-sounding trio with blazing songs that defy expectation. The group’s self-titled debut is filled with straightforward rock and roll inspired by some of their favorite bands, and their music transcends any of the styles they're best known for.

“We all have our own distinct voicings and styles, but we also have a common ground of music we grew up listening to,” explains vocalist and guitarist Richie Kotzen. “What makes the band so special is that somehow, in our collaboration, none of us lost our identity. We all sound like who we are yet we make music that is fresh and exciting and sounds like a new band.” The push-pull dynamic illustrates how The Winery Dogs toy with established styles and turn them into something special, complete with Sheehan’s acrobatic bass fills and Kotzen’s rapid-fire solos, which help The Winery Dogs blend in a way that’s both instantly recognizable and utterly individual. “It’s very exciting for me to be in a solid rock trio,” Portnoy says. “Stylistically, the bulk of my career has been spent playing progressive music, so this was an opportunity for me to do something that wasn’t prog or metal. It’s more classic rock and, at the end of the day that’s what I grew up with and that’s the biggest influence in my life..”

The seeds of The Winery Dogs were planted in 2011 when Sheehan and Portnoy were working on music together with a different guitarist and songwriter. When that didn’t gel, a mutual friend, suggested they contact Kotzen and see if he was interested in forming a band. The musicians got together in Kotzen’s rehearsal studio in January 2012 and the first day they jammed, they wrote three songs. A month later, they reconvened and wrote five more tunes. From there, it was just a matter of fulfilling other musical obligations before they could get together and start recording the album. “At that point we were all gung-ho into it,” Portnoy says. “That summer we got together and we began recording in August 2012. That’s when the bulk of the recording was done as well as the writing of the remaining six tracks. We reconvened in December to finish the vocals and the last touches of overdubbing and mixed it in January 2013.” From the up-tempo blues-punk rhythms and flailing lead guitars of “The Other Side” to the space-warped doom of “Time Machine,” to the boogie blues riffage of “One More Time,” The Winery Dogs conjure the best aspects of sixties and seventies rock with a modern flair. Equally experimental and infectious, their self-titled album is a milestone in a hard rock genre saturated with cookie-cutter bands afraid to stray beyond their proven formula.

Tickets for this standing room only show go on sale this Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available for purchase at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall and St. Augustine Amphitheatre Box Offices, ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets and by phone at (800) 745-3000.