The Georgia Thunderbolts - Rise Above It All

Any band that can take Frankie Miller’s ‘Ain’t Got No Money’ and give it their own confident, assertive, convincing treatment is going to get my vote, and The Georgia Thunderbolts do just that on Rise Above It All, taking it strong and steady with lurching drums and slide guitar, while T.J. Lyle knocks out a raspingly soulful vocal ahead of a razor-like guitar break.  It’s a belter.
And I gotta tell you, this is not a one-off, no siree.  This is a goddamn mutha of an album.
Take ‘Rock And Roll Record’, fr’instance.  It comes with a very Bad Company-like quiet piano opening, also from Lyle in tandem with his soulful voice, and then huge shards of guitar arrive to plant a haymaker on your noggin.  “This is a rock’n’roll record, this is a rock’n’roll song,” Lyle hollers, and he sure ain’t kidding, as a guitar break like the howling hounds of Hades makes clear.

The Georgia Thunderbolts - black and white photograph, technicolour album

Pic by Jim Arbogast

Or take ‘She’s Gonna Get It’, a crunching rocker taken at a gallop, with a surging riff given extra edge by scurrying guitar licks, reinforced by pounding drums from Bristol Perry and earth-moving bass from Zach Everett, and topped off with a brief but supercharged guitar solo.  It could be something Sammy Hagar would knock out after a few good belts of tequila.
‘Little Jim’ is a tense rumble over a suspenseful rhythm, with an urgent story-telling vocal from Lyle about a miscarriage of justice and its emotional scars, until guitar fireworks collide with the insistent, jabbing coda.  On ‘Stand Up’ subterranean bass triggers a slamming riff as a prelude to a nagging melody, Lyle’s vocal robust and reverberating over spiky guitar commentary, with clever cross-cutting backing vocals, decorated by guitar breaks that respectively trill and squeal.  You get the picture?
Not that the Thunderbolts are without subtlety.  Both ‘Gonna Shine’ and ‘Moonlight Play’ are growers with more of a Southern rock slant, without ever being derivative.  The first is a decent tune whose hook gradually gains traction, with twangy guitar moments and neat bursts of backing vox, but most of all chugging rhythm guitar and bass that eventually become clamorous and guttural.  The latter starts off quietly, Lyle singing with feeling over picked and strummed guitar.  Then those guitars wielded by Riley Couzzourt and Logan Tolbert start ringing out in typically muscular fashion – they’re a real dynamic duo this pair, though one of ‘em gets a star turn here with a screaming final solo over thunderous drums and descending chords.
Oh yeah, I was talking about subtlety wasn’t I?  Well okay, there’s the romantic ‘Wait’, all shimmering acoustic and slide guitar, with melodic bass lines from Everett, spot-on double tracked vocals from Lyle, and neat guitar harmonies to boot.  ‘Crawling Back To You’ is romantic too, a ballad with country-ish leanings and an aching vocal from Lyle, plus a distinctive solo full of quiver an’ shiver that I suspect comes from a baritone guitar in the hands of Couzzort.  And for even more variety there’s the rootsy, bluesy Ron Davies song ‘It Ain’t Easy’ (much covered, including by Bowie on Ziggy Stardust), with hints of both field song and Americana amid slippery slide guitar and oompah-like bass, and a raucous chorus on which the gang insist that “It ain’t easy going to heaven when you’re going down”.
But I come back to the kind of soulful rocking vibe that imbues ‘Whiskey Talkin’’, with its rolling guitar riff and Lyle’s soulful voice well to the fore. He may have a slightly higher register than Paul Rodgers, and doesn’t quite have the same resonance, but he has the same kind of feel, and that’s a hell of a compliment.  And to cap things off there’s ‘Pricetag’, which rides in with piledriving drums and fuzzed up guitars on a steamrollering riff, into which they slip some wordless moaning harmonies while Lyle gets his wail on.  And then it gets gut-wrenchingly cacophonous to finish.
Full credit too to producers Richard O. Young and David Barrick, who capture a dense sound where sometimes everyone seems to be fighting for space, in particular nailing a whomping drum sound for Bristol Perry.
Could a few songs could do with sharper hooks to make them more impactful?  Maybe, but fuck it - who wants to nit-pick?  Rise Above It All is a stonkingly good team effort, and The Georgia Thunderbolts might just be as titanic as their name suggests.  Give ‘em a blast from your speakers right now!
 
Rise Above It All is out now on Mascot Records, and is available here.