A kid with a rare talent for blues licks usually has musicians roosting in the family tree. Not Rocco Gorelik: “My parents were high-level tennis players—no one in my family plays music,” the 16-year-old says. “I’m like this weird unicorn.”
When Gorelik was 11, he was following his own filial path when the pandemic shut down the neighborhood tennis courts. With nowhere to swing a racket, he bought a guitar with pocket money and taught himself to play. Soon, he was sweet-talking his way onto stages around North Atlanta, playing at Chiringa in Alpharetta and after Braves games at Taps at Ph’east in The Battery. In 2023, a video went viral of Gorelik, age 12, tearing it up at The Tabernacle with Southern rocker Marcus King; Gorelik had shown up to the show with a guitar and a sign that said, “Can I play a song?”
Gorelik is no longer the plucky wunderkind—he’s now focused on building a music career, gigging around the Southeast while finishing high school remotely. He posts popular social media videos from the back porch of his family’s Johns Creek home, where he bangs out Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings covers in a rich baritone with perfect country twang. His tastes lean classic: “It’s always been old-school for me,” he says. “There’s a lot of great modern music, but for me, it’s that realness that gets me every time.”
Gorelik was thrilled to learn Travis Tritt had pointed to him as a voice of the next generation. “He’s such a huge hero of mine,” he says, adding that Tritt embodies the purist country mentality that Gorelik aims to channel. “He’s always kept it rooted, but he has some cool blues-rockiness to it, too.” In fact, the young musician regularly covers his hometown hero; he says Tritt’s hit “Country Club” gets extra love at (insert wink) Dunwoody Country Club.
Gorelik is now venturing into his own songwriting; his debut album, out in early 2027, was recently recorded at the famous RCA studios in Nashville. His band recorded live, playing together in a single room—the way greats like Elvis and Jennings did in the same spot. “It’s just an old-school style of music [recording],” Gorelik says. “Very ’60s, ’70s—very country music, you know?”
Listen
New single “Good Hands” will be out on Spotify in January 2027
Favorite Travis Tritt song to cover live
“T-R-O-U-B-L-E” from T-R-O-U-B-L-E (1992). “It’s so energetic, the crowd just loves it so much.”
Favorite venue in Atlanta
Five Paces Inn, Buckhead: “They love country music down there!”
Instagram
@roccogorelik
This article appears in our November 2026 issue.
