ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
January 13, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

I'm not worried.  I'm not especially afraid for the wellbeing of our kind of music.  Mainstream country can do what it does, but as long as we have bands like The Steel Woods, roots music is alive and well.

It's not that the quartet is committed to redefining much.  On the contrary, their new record places them securely in the lineage of Southern country rock.  Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, etc.  But Old News (Woods Music, Jan 18) should also be considered among today's most relevant traditionalists:  Chris Stapleton, Blackberry Smoke, Whitey Morgan.  Jason Cope (guitar) and Wes Bayliss (vocal) emerged onto the scene with guns blazing for 2016's Straw In the Wind, coming in the wake of Cope's decade of service behind Jamey Johnson.

A hard-touring act, the Steel Woods have earned a reputation as purveyors of heavy-osity, their dark and guitar-fueled oeuvre suitable for rattling the speakers and blasting aside the week's cares.  The strutting "All of These Years" checks those boxes, setting the stage for Old News' theme of waking up to the state of our dis-union:  God help us all in our search for truth / Nothing makes you old like holding onto youth / What keeps me young and long in the tooth / Is a lotta blood, a lotta sweat and a little bit of the blues. The song establishes an indelible boogie that resurfaces on "Blind Lover", bearing witness to Cope's fiery guitar chops.

Throughout most of Old News, however, the Steel Woods embody heaviness in a less overtly pyrotechnic fashion.  As on their debut, the new collection features the band's run through a Black Sabbath number.  Mired in foreboding and regret, there's hardly a heavier song than 1972's "Changes", effectively replicated here as a soulful Southern rock ballad.  Songs like "Rock That Says My Name" and "Without You" are heavy with reminders of mortality, another of The Steel Woods' recurring themes.  The former is narrated by a gravedigger whose calling serves to remind him of our shared destination:  Well I ain't afraid to die 'cause I know where I'll go / There I'll live forever on the streets made of gold / Til then I'll keep on working, you won't hear me complain / And every day I'll tip my hat to the rock that says my name.

The album jacket for Old News bears a drawing of the Statue of Liberty, torch raised aloft while a tear falls from her eye.  The record's title track stands as a (very) early candidate for song of the year, a passionate plea for civility.  Bayliss delivers a stellar vocal over piano and swelling instrumentation:  The weight of that torch comes with blood that's been spilled / A book of blank pages waiting to be filled.  In the hands of lesser artists, "Old News" might've become a jingoistic "God Bless the USA" moment.  The Steel Woods deliver it just right, steeped in the Southern spirit of family, neighbor and nation.  It's one of the more somber moments on a CD that's deceptively tuneful from a band that operates from a tight musical pocket.  Bayliss is an appropriately gruff vocalist, but he's capable of moving melodicism on cuts like "Wherever You Are".

Just in case the album's originals aren't enough to help you triangulate The Steel Woods' sound, the band includes an "Obituaries" section - four covers of songs from late influences and friends.  From a furious "Whipping Post" to a tried and true take on Merle Haggard's "Are the Good Times Really Over", the covers are more focused on respect than reinvention.  The most eloquent of these is a suitably moving run through Tom Petty's "Southern Accents".  It's the perfect way to close a collection that roots The Steel Woods in tradition while allowing them to further define themselves as an outfit that matters to the future of our kind of music.

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- Wooden Wand, "Winter in Kentucky" Briarwood  (Fire, 11)
- Blank Range, "Radio" In Unison  (Sturdy Girl, Feb 1)
- Vandoliers, "Cigarettes in the Rain" Forever  (Bloodshot, Feb 22)
- Hannah Harber & the Lionhearts, "Sorry Darlin'" Long Time Coming  (Harber, 19)  D
- Joshua Ray Walker, "Last Call" Wish You Were Here  (State Fair, Jan 25)
- Rob Baird, "Devil Woman Blues" After All  (Hard Luck, 19)
- Meat Puppets, "Nine Pins" Dusty Notes  (Megaforce, Mar 8)
- Adia Victoria, "Different Kind of Love" Silences  (Atlantic, Feb 22)
- Will Johnson, "Big Distortion" John Singer Sergeant: Music and Songs of John Dufilho  (Kirtland, 12)
- Quaker City Night Hawks, "Hunter's Moon" QCNH  (Lightning Rod, Mar 1)
- Lee Fields & Expressions, "It Rains Love" It Rains Love  (Big Crown, Apr 5)  D
- Patty Griffin, "River" Patty Griffin  (PGM, Mar 8)  D
- Bob Sumner, "Riverbed" Wasted Love Songs  (Sumner, Jan 25)
- Be Good Tanyas, "In Spite of All the Damage" Chinatown  (Nettwerk, 03)
- Boo Ray, "Gone Back To Georgia" Tennessee Alabama Fireworks  (Boo Ray, Feb 15)
- Steve Earle, "Dublin Blues" GUY  (New West, Mar 29)  D
- Rosie Flores, "Mercy Fell Like Rain" A Simple Case of the Blues  (Flores, Feb 15)
- Two Tons of Steel, "Unglued" Vegas  (Palo Duro, 06)
- Long Ryders, "Greenville" Psychedelic Country Soul  (Omnivore, Feb 15)  D
- Ryan Bingham, "Jingle and Go" American Love Song  (Axster Bingham, Feb 15)
- Chatham County Line, "I Got You (At the End of the Century)" Sharing the Covers  (Yep Roc, Mar 8)  D
- Todd Snider, "Just Like Overnight" Cash Cabin Sessions Vol 3  (Aimless, Mar 15)  D
- Delines, "Let's Be Us Again" The Imperial  (Decor, 19)
- Steve Gunn, "Vagabond" Unseen In Between  (Matador, Jan 18)
- Anna Tivel, "The Question" The Question  (Fluff & Gravy, Apr 19)
- Justin Townes Earle, "Looking For a Place To Land" Single Mothers  (Vagrant, 14)
- Mercury Rev, "Okolona River Bottom Band (feat.Norah Jones)" Bobbie Gentry's Delta Sweete Revisited  (Partisan, Feb 8)
- Nick Waterhouse, "Song For Winners" Nick Waterhouse  (Innovative Leisure, Mar 8)  D
- SUSTO, "If I Was" Ever Since I Lost My Mind  (Rounder, Feb 22)
- Bill Callahan, "One Fine Morning" Apocalypse  (Drag City, 11)

Crazy week for new stuff, with forthcoming records added to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster from folks like Tedeschi Trucks Band, Lee Fields and a deluxe reissue of Andrew Combs' debut.  Ryan Adams promises three (3) new albums in 2019, with the first, Big Colors, slated for April 19.  Josh Ritter's next project will be produced by Jason Isbell, and supported by his 400 Unit.  Almost exactly a decade after he paid an album length tribute to Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle salutes another friend with Guy on March 29.  Patty Griffin promises a self-titled collection come March, her first original studio stuff since 2015.

With our next Big Release Date scheduled for the Friday the 18th, we're eagerly awaiting a gob of new stuff from Greensky Bluegrass, Steel Woods, Steve Gunn, Flatland Cavalry, Liz Brasher and the reformed Flesh Eaters, featuring folks like John Doe, Dave Alvin and Steve Berlin.  It's the first absurdly generous release date of 2019, and we're confident it's our kind of music.