About The Artist
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.