At least for me, The Steel Woods have set an exceptionally high bar with all of their releases. I’d count all of their previous albums as top favorites of the respective years in which they were released, with 2021’s All of Your Stones standing as the crown jewel. Granted, it’s hard to ignore the impact of founding member Jason “Rowdy” Cope’s passing when revisiting that record or judging it on its own merits. But if anything, it goes to show that these southern-rock titans are just as adept at crafting swaggering, groove-driven cuts as they are slow-burning country weepers.
And it looks like that creative spirit lives on regardless, given that newest album On Your Time has been billed as a concept album framed around the titular character featured in the Darrell Scott-penned “Uncle Lloyd,” which appeared on the band’s Straw in the Wind album in 2017. It’s a bit of a different take on things, given how they’ve already established their own universe filled with riveting characters (which mostly involves a murderous love triangle and is worth seeking out, especially with Halloween around the corner).
But I’d also say, sadly, that it’s an idea that doesn’t always feel as well-realized or fleshed-out as it could here. If you’re looking for the band’s scrappy, hard-charged southern-rock barn-burners, you’re not going to really find them on this album, outside of maybe the excellent take on “Border Lord” with its smoky riff and blasts of harmonica for some added muscle. If anything, this is a much slower-paced affair and arguably their most country-leaning album to date, with not only great Patty Loveless and Kris Kristofferson covers to help bookend the project, but also a warm, graceful, pedal-steel-filled reflection by way of the closer, “If Not For the Rain.”
And that’s not a bad thing in theory, but given how similar these tempos run and how the album never establishes much momentum, it can be hard to stay engaged with this album throughout its run. That’s especially true when you get an extended cut like “Cut the Grass” with its uninteresting solos, or cuts like the title track and “Broken Down Dam” that just feel too slow-paced without the more gripping compositional refinement to make up for it.
In a sense, however, it also feels deliberate in setting up this particular album and framing it as a more tired, weathered affair, given the slice-of-life framing that comes to form the Uncle Lloyd character’s story . In the context of Scott’s song, he’s a drifter who settles down but works away from his family with a friend of his, always looking to provide and do the right thing in theory, even if his stoic nature and general detachment eventually causes problems with his marriage and life in general.
I’m not sure this album ever takes the character in any unexpected directions that aren’t fleshed out in the original song itself, but credit definitely goes toward the band for simply digging deeper into a troubled antihero’s psyche. It’s even more interesting when you consider that these types of characters are often revered in this brand of hard-scrabbled southern-rock and ‘70s-inspired country: lonely drifters who are detached and free to do as they will, but also are likely carrying a lot of personal burdens that contributed to that mindset. It’s less of a traditional romanticized look and more of a deeper dive into the scars these people often carry and the consequences that follow from living that way, which is why opening song “The Man From Everywhere” pours such a great foundation for the rest of the album to follow.
But it’s also here where I think there’s a bit of a missed opportunity with this album in the finer details and thematic arc. As it stands, it seems to depict the character as the same troubled character who’s had to settle down and provide for his family from afar while also acting as an uncle figure to his friend’s own son. But songs like “Devil In This Holler” and “Famine Fortune” feel like stock working man songs without a lot of interesting or unique lived-in detail, even if the dramatic stakes to be unable to provide for the family are amplified. And songs like “Cut the Grass” and the title track feel like meandering life advice tracks formed by a checklist of metaphors.
If anything, it’s the Loveless cover of “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” that kicks this album into gear, especially when its main look at how emotional detachment and loneliness eats away at a couple is a perfect fit for this particular record. And while it doesn’t shine above Loveless’ take, it comes damn close. It also follows the album’s (and original song’s) main message that you can’t always run from your past demons, even if confronting them will garner a heavy price. And to have Kris Kristofferson’s “Border Lord” follow as the downward spiral taken after the love has burned out … it’s a great one-two punch, but I’d also say it weirdly provides this album’s greatest anchoring points in ways that the original songs don’t often do.
Although, it’s also a good insight into why our character is the stoic working man turned hard by his own personal vices and years of loneliness and hard work that amounted to nothing in the end. It’s why “Stories to Tell to Myself” stands as something of a soft reset and reflection for him, and it’s also why songs like “Broken Down Dam” and “If Not For the Rain” are about picking back up the pieces and ending on an optimistic note, even if the latter track’s “what doesn’t kill makes you stronger” conceit feels like it ends the album on a somewhat hollow note. That’s kind of the thing about On Your Time in general: It’s a strong record as a whole threaded together by a wholly cohesive core, even if the individual standouts this time around don’t quite fluctuate as strongly.
(7/10)
- Favorite tracks: “The Man From Everywhere,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” “Border Lord,” “Stories to Tell to Myself”
- Least favorite track: “On Your Time”
The Musical Divide 