Introducing your new favourite southern rock band, the Georgia Thunderbolts

The Georgia Thunderbolts have announced the release of their self-titled debut EP. It'll be released via Mascot Records on August 21. They've also launched the first two videos from the EP, Lend A Hand and Looking For An Old Friend.

The band hail from Rome, Georgia, and comprise singer TJ Lyle, guitarists Riley Couzzourt and Logan Tolbert, bassist Zach Everett and drummer Bristol Perry.

Friends since high school, the band have been taken under the wing of established acts like Black Stone Cherry and the Kentucky Headhunters, whose frontman Richard Young has produced the EP.

With those kind of connections you're already halfway to understanding what the band sound like: a southern sound steeped in soul and blues, but with plenty of grit and aggression.

"We all grew up on rock music,” says Couzzourt. “Rock‘n’roll comes back around, but longevity depends on grinding it out. That’s what we want to do. We try to put in the work our favourite bands did.”

The EP was recorded at the Barrick Recording Studio in Glasgow, Kentucky, where Black Stone Cherry worked on Family Tree and Kentucky as well as on their debut, self-titled album.

“In Georgia, you hear Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, and all of the greats everywhere," say the band. "Rock'n'roll is something that comes naturally for us. We love it and are in it for the long haul. We feel like we can bring it back."

Georgia Thunderbolts EP tracklist

1. Looking For An Old Friend
2. So You Wanna Change The World
3. Lend A hand
4. Spirit Of A Workin' Man
5. Set Me Free

Georgia Thunderbolts EP cover art — (Image credit: Mascot Records)

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.