Every song from Little Hopes is a secret passage into their wildly charmed corner of the American South—a timeworn wonderland of honeysuckles and kudzu, porch swings and boxed wine, grandiose thunderstorms and glittering night skies. Since forming the Atlanta-based duo in 2022, singer/songwriters Sydney Rhame and Brock Shanks have created their own enchanted take on Americana/country-rock, suffusing their storytelling with the kind of lived-in detail that lights up all the senses and pulls the listener deep into their lavish world. Mainly recorded in their former home (a hundred-year-old bungalow possibly on the verge of being condemned), Little Hopes’ debut album, Georgia bottles up the ragged beauty of their surroundings, ultimately bringing a much-needed magic to songs of loss, longing, and the often-heartbreaking work of chasing your dreams.

Both Georgia natives (Rhame grew up in Atlanta, Shanks hails from the small town of Rockmart), the two lifelong musicians linked up through a mutual friend back in 2020, when Rhame hired Shanks to film a video for her former solo project. As their relationship evolved from friends to romantic partners, they began writing songs together and discovered an ineffable chemistry—an element that quickly undid the disillusionment they’d endured in past musical experiences. To that end, Rhame got her start writing songs and playing guitar at age seven, later landing a record deal that left her with virtually no artistic control. Meanwhile, Shanks learned to play guitar from his older brother (esteemed session player and Blackberry Smoke member Benji Shanks) and spent years working as a guitar tech in Nashville, then abandoned his musical dreams and moved to Atlanta to focus on photography. “For a long time, I thought the goal was to be incredibly technically proficient so I could jump onto any stage and impress everyone with my playing, but eventually I realized that’s not my purpose,” says Shanks. “When Sydney and I started playing together, it somehow reignited what we’d both always wanted to do. Right away, it felt like coming home.”