Review: The Georgia Thunderbolts – Rise Above It All
The Georgia Thunderbolts – Rise Above It All
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Mascot Label Group
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
‘Rise Above It All’ is the second album by Southern rock band The Georgia Thunderbolts, a relatively young band, whose members had to earn their money as street musicians and as a cover band not so long ago.
Their debut album ‘Can We Get A Witness’ was released in 2021, in the middle of the corona pandemic. But despite the fact that the promotion of that album by touring was not possible, The Georgia Thunderbolts did establish their reputation with it.
The music on ‘Rise Above It All’ follows firmly in the footsteps of the southern rock band par excellence: Lynyrd Skynyrd and is performed by the very competent band, consisting of lead vocalist TJ Lyle, guitarists Logan Tolbert and Riley Couzzourt, bass guitarist Zach Everett and drummer Bristol Perry.
The album provides a number of excellent southern rock songs, in which The Thunderbolts prove to be an excellent alternative and standard-bearer of Southern Rock for the umpteenth reincarnation of Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is already on its last legs.
It is especially lead vocalist TJ Lyle, who steals the show, as in the beautiful Rock And Roll Record, in the hard-hitting twin guitar anthem Rise Above It All and the solid rock songs She Is Gonna Get It, Whiskey Talkin’ and Pricetag.
Also strikingly beautiful is the Frankie Miller cover Ain’t Got No Money, in which Lyle makes no secret of his admiration for the tragic Scottish singer, who has been severely physically and mentally handicapped for 30 years due to a severe cerebral haemorrhage. It also results in the beautiful semi-acoustic Crawling My Way Back To You, which in terms of composition and vocals could have been on a Frankie Miller album.
With their second album Rise Above It All, The Georgia Thunderbolts, led by star vocalist TJ Lyle, confirm that the Southern Rock tradition is in very good hands with them.
Tracks:
01. Gonna Shine
02. Rock and Roll Record
03. Rise Above It All
04. Moonlight Play
05. Ain’t Got No Money
06. Wait
07. Crawling My Way Back To You
08. She’s Gonna Get It
09. Little Jim
10. It Ain’t Easy
11. Stand Up
12. Whiskey Talkin’
13. Pricetag
Website: https://www.georgiathunderbolts.com/