A quartet of Southern rock traditionalists from Nashville,
the Steel Woods lay claim to the sound pioneered by
Lynyrd Skynyrd. Like
Skynyrd,
the Steel Woods balance heavy blues-rock with Southern poetry, and they add a bit of plainspoken outlaw country to the mix, as evidenced on their 2017 debut
Straw in the Wind and 2019 sophomore effort,
Old News. Two years later the band released
All of Your Stones, the last studio LP to feature co-founder
Jason Cope, who passed away in January 2021.
Prior to forming
the Steel Woods, guitarists
Wes Bayliss and
Jason "Rowdy" Cope were both pursuing musical careers.
Cope found work as a session musician and played in
Jamey Johnson's band, but once he met
Bayliss at a Nashville gig, the two clicked. They became friends and wound up collaborating, adding bassist Johnny Stanton and drummer
Jay Tooke to round out their lineup. An eponymous EP came out in 2016, and the next year saw the release of
Straw in the Wind on Thirty Tigers/Woods Music. A cover of
Tom Petty's "Southern Accents" arrived in December 2018 as the first track off their 2019 full-length
Old News. Co-founder
Jason "Rowdy" Cope passed away on January 16, 2021, shortly after the band had completed their third studio long-player. The resulting
All of Your Stones, which included the inspirational
Cope co-penned title cut, arrived later that May. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine