Thomas Rhett Releases Surprise Cover of ‘Georgia On My Mind’

Any day we wake up to new music from Thomas Rhett is a good day - particularly when it drops out of the blue, as is the case with ‘Georgia On My Mind’ today (March 23rd).

The classic love letter to The Peach State was originally penned and released by Hoagy Carmichael in 1930, but was elevated into a blockbuster smash hit by Ray Charles in 1960.

It has become tradition each year for ESPN to choose an artist to record a cover of the track in honour of The Masters, which are played at Georgia's Augusta National. Last year, it was Rhett's buddy, Noah Kahan, and this year, ESPN have opted for TR.

As he explains in a new interview with Billboard about the track, Rhett is an avid golfer himself, name-checking a couple of famous Augusta features, “When I hear that song, [I] just immediately envision Spanish moss having on trees. I envision Magnolia Lane, Amen Corner. It will just always make me think of the Masters, period”.

Rhett hails from Georgia, and regularly pays homage to how much he adores his home-state throughout his discography, most notably on ’Georgia’ and ‘Country Again’.

The new release finds the ’Die a Happy Man’ singer-songwriter crooning gently about Georgia across a pared-down, traditional-leaning instrumental. While Rhett has a penchant for blurring the lines between country, pop and R&B, the country chart-topper maintains a retro ambience and sticks closely to the original rendition.

It wasn't initially clear what exactly the reasoning behind the release - and the timing of the release - of this track is, and we wondered if Rhett was teasing a 2026 hometown show.

When Rhett unveiled his 2026 Soundtrack to Life Tour earlier in March - featuring two momentous co-headlining shows with his buddy, Niall Horan - a number of fans took to the comments to complain about the absence of a show in Georgia.

However, TR later revealed that he cut his rendition of ‘Georgia On My Mind’ for ESPN. The Masters kicks off on April 9th, with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy set to defend his title.

For more on Thomas Rhett, see below: