Ladies and gentlemen, the Southern Rock, that true blood-stained rock that sounds dirt like a mud street, has a new band to count among its ranks. Four guys from Nashville, who come from the part of town where you actually play and borrowed that outlaw country feeling that makes their music believable, can sit at the same table as Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers, and have an uncommon courage that allows them to perform in addition to their own songs also covers of absolute legends and not disfiguring, indeed! The Steel Woods are on their second studio album and already after the first Straw In The Wind in 2017, they had aroused a lot of curiosity and attention, A very rough but direct sound that had in Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet strong inspirations with some really interesting country influences, but in this new effort they reach a higher level. From promises to confirmations the pace seems short but it is almost never. It takes talent and passion and these guys have it. Just press play to understand that the guys know how to do, a groove that immediately takes that of All Of These Years, the guitar grating chords while the voice of Wes Bayliss makes the difference, powerful and full, perfect even the solo. The lyrics are absolutely inspired and the blue collar matrix of the band is quite clear. Work stories, feelings and real life. Southern as we said, yes but not only and the second song Without You slows down significantly, a rock ballad, which raises the level of composition and arrangements, extraordinary the work of guitarist Jason Cope, for 9 years in the band of the legendary Jamey Johnson, confirmation for the voice of Bayliss always on the shields, mention also for the almost brilliant text on the love never met. With the third piece we have the first surprise, a cover of Black Sabbath, you understood well the first metalheads of the story, that Changes that already in the original version was a surprise. The voice is comfortable both when he has to get angry and in the sweetest tones and the version is convincing and courageous (very brave trust me), almost bluesy and does absolutely justice to the original as well as the other covers of the lot. The Catfish Song by Townes Van Zandt, originally a poignant ballad here becomes a dirty southern rock author, talent and recklessness as in the beautiful versions of Whipping Post of the legendary The Allman Brothers Band , Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver) by Merle Haggard but also in the closing of the record with a heartfelt and successful dedication to the late Tom Petty and his Southern Accents. Perfect I would add this one, a really quality seal to a really amazing record. Not wanting to tell you all the 15 songs what would be redundant and would take away the surprise of a record absolutely to listen carefully, I just have to mention the most beautiful song of the lot and that is the title track Old News. A spectacular southern ballad, a voice that gets inside you and a band arrangement conscious of their talent and with their own identity, inspired by the great but not carbon copy. Chapeau! One of the most beautiful southern tracks of the last years. A mature record of a band from the future assured, brave and talented, that will look good in work clothes and mud but also in the elegant dress for a smoky blues and country club. This absurd situation has taken away the chance to see them live in Milan in 2020, but tickets for the show of July 2021 are already hot, waiting for new news from a band that amazes us with these old news.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.magazzininestistenti.it
(you can find original italian article on the blog at this link : https://www.trexroads.com/old-news-the-steel-woods-2019-2/ )
