Review: Wes Bayliss Navigates The Steel Woods’ Fourth Album on His Own Time

The Steel Woods
On Your Time
(Woods Music/Thirty Tigers)
4 out of 5 stars

The Nashville-based Americana rockers’ fourth release is credited to The Steel Woods, but the musician credits tell another story. Rather, frontman/founder Wes Bayliss plays every instrument (save for Darrell Scott’s steel guitar) on every track, making this a solo album in all but name.

Regardless, the singer/songwriter does a remarkable job of sounding like a full group, thanks to his talents and those of his engineering and mixing team. To their credit, it’s impossible to tell that this is a one-man show (with multiple overdubs) when hearing these songs unspool with coiled tension. 

There’s no indication on the CD but according to promotional notes, On Your Time is a song cycle “loosely following the trajectory of Uncle Lloyd, a charming but dissolute character first introduced on the Woods’ (2017) debut.” Fair enough. There’s no obvious story here, although the lyrics concern the thoughts and actions of a restless guy introduced in the opening selection as “The Man from Everywhere.” Perhaps that’s him on the cover painting, peering out over the mountainous horizon for something better. Bayliss sings And I’ll run and I’ll hide / I see what I can find / But I’m never satisfied / Maybe I’m just bad at chasing dreams over slithering slide guitars, an insistent thumping beat and a swampy riff any Southern rock band would be proud to call their own.

That’s the blueprint for the remaining nine tunes, all written or co-penned by Bayliss save for a cool, creeping cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Border Lord.” That nearly forgotten gem follows the album’s theme of a protagonist leaving somewhere and going towards an unclear destination. On it, Bayliss sings running like you’re running out of time; potent lyrics capture the set’s impatient, uneasy spirit as a harmonica moans and brawny guitars intertwine resulting in a thunderous climax.

The musical intensity subsides for ballads such as the acoustic rumination of “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” (a quote from a note that the woman who suddenly abandons the singer left) and the closing “If Not for the Rain,” a dark realization that because of the bad times, he will understand if better things lay ahead with the lyrics I wouldn’t know a good day if not for the rain.

Bayliss sings with the pent-up anger and frustration his words imply, infusing even more honesty into already authentic feelings. It’s tough, tense, and moving guitar-based roots rock that will register with those who appreciate the similar sinewy grip of The Drive-By Truckers or any of Bayliss’/The Steel Woods’ previous releases.

And live, with the interaction of a full band, it might just be better.

Photo by Cole Creasy /Propeller PR