Fresh from an appearance closing out the House of Blues stage at French Quarter Festival in 2019, Them Ol’ Ghosts has released Hounds, an EP they describe as “unbridled Rock & Roll, filled with greasy guitar harmonies and visceral rhythmic sections.”

Theophile Bourgeois, the band’s frontman, says Hounds is an exercise in expanding the band’s creative, conceptual and sonic horizon. Their writing process was still “very unformed” when they released Renegade in 2017. “I had complete songs that I brought to the band and we didn’t make many changes to the original arrangements,” says Bourgeois of the band’s past writing process. “With Hounds, we’ve now been playing together for a few years and have built up so much creative symbiotic energy and trust in everyone’s strengths that the songwriting process has become a much more collective effort.”

The band says the new EP “aims to shine a revealing light on what we’ve been taught to be wrong or wicked and embracing the darkest parts of ourselves to face the crucible of being human. The hounds within us can either destroy us or in our darkest moments we can face them, tame them, and train them to be our guardians, the reminders of the internal battles we have fought, and won.” It’s just a little light listening for your day.

The three-song project is also an effort to showcase the band’s versatility. “Southern Soul Rock” would adequately describe Them Ol’ Ghosts’ previous release, but this time around, the band has something else in mind. “We’re just out here trying to be the Cajun Thin Lizzy,” he says.

Them Ol’ Ghosts will perform at One Eyed Jacks with Roadside Glorious and Delta Revelry on July 27.