The first album by Johny Vegas, is a feel-good CD that is full of sunny organized rhythms, acoustic guitar and bright vocals. "It's a very innocent album. Most of the songs were written in college when life was pretty simple and lots of fun," explains Shimshack. The album was recorded on a small farm house outside of Rochester NY and features Keith's dog Ryan on its cover. "All we really did at that time was hang with our dog, play upbeat music at bars." explains lead singer Keith Calveric. In the song "Plan," Calveric sings about "leaving soon" and escaping the small town life of Oswego (where the band started as the house band at a small college club). His wish became reality, after Dog's release, as Johny Vegas found themselves touring the Northeast and selling CD's to thousands of fans. The song "Appletree" turned out to be a modest regional radio hit and JV was soon sharing the stage with Weezer, Better Than Ezra and the 10,000 Maniacs.

shack during recording of 'Dog'