In the hills of North Georgia in the mid 1960's, kids spent their summers brushing gnats from their eyes and learning to play baseball in the front yard. You could still find old country stores that sold hoop cheese, plug tobacco, RC Cola and Moon Pies. But technology was just around corner, as the Victrolas were gradually being replaced by giant, stereophonic consoles. Around this time, the four Thrillhammers would be raised within a few miles of each other, their mommas feeding them collards and cracklin' bread.

Their homes had 3 television stations and an AM radio. To pass the time, they got a steady diet of country music as well. Underneath the needles of their phonographs ran grooves filled with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Buck Owens, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. While this musical diet was no more unusual for the area than what they found on their supper tables, one thing set it apart. All four digested it with an instrument in their hand, trying to play along with families full of musicians.

Each of them started trying to keep up, or keep time, with family singalongs from worn out songbooks that held the priceless music they revisited most every night. Four kids, who wouldn't know each other for years, were likely singing the same tunes in unison from different sides of the mountain. The first contribution for each of them instrumentally was banging on the back of a guitar.

Like most musical kids do, they eventually joined local bands in high school, and their influences expanded to include many of the staples of a healthy Rock and Roll diet; The Beatles, Stones, The Who...but also a variety of 70's bands like Molly Hatchett, April Wine, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kiss, and AC/DC. Wayne and Shannon played in a band together, and later Chris and Wayne. After high school, Wayne would meet drummer and vocalist Greg, and they played some gigs together. Like most kids playing in rock and roll bands, their bands would come and go.

Again, nothing unusual.

But in 1987, the four of them got together for the first time to jam. They didn't get together to get famous or rich, they just wanted to play some good music. And a funny thing happened. THEY NEVER STOPPED.

The house they rented started turning out blistering jam sessions. Folks would show up and stay all night, and the furniture turned into a dance floor. They worked out harmonies and their own versions of interesting covers, and night after night produced a new set list. Shows in various juke joints routinely ended in a frenzy, sometimes whipping the crowd into a fight.

They began recording on cheap 4 track machines and honed their craft. An inventive version of a Bob Dylan song found it's way to the radio, and an original song not found on this cd was a top song at the Georgia Songwriters showcase. But all four Thrillhammers had careers, and none had any interest in pursuing music...except in the way they had since birth, at the next jam session. So the sessions continued, on most every Tuesday night. All four raised families, worked, and once a week, got together to play. The music fermented, or festered, FOR 20 YEARS. Musical genres came and went, but within the walls of their music hall, it jelled into its own form, and became rock solid.

So, Long Story Short, here's what a brand new band would sound like if it worked at what it loved, for two decades, before putting it down for the world to hear.

THE THRILLHAMMERS - THE GREATEST GARAGE BAND IN THE WORLD YOU NEVER HEARD OF.