About the Valley of Steel (the Valley)

Since I chose to loosely base the title of this blog on the geographical area where I live, I figured I’d say a few words about that, too.  The name is a bit of a misnomer, since there is actually very little steel here anymore.  But, “Valley of run-down houses and boarded-up stores and poor people in a tiny rust-belt river town that once upon a time had a thriving ecomony based on the local steel-producing industry” just didn’t have the same ring to it.

The ‘Valley’ part is accurate, as I live along one of the three rivers that intersect, about an hour or so from here, in the heart of Pittsburgh.  We’ll just use a bit of suspension of disbelief about the ‘Steel’ bit.  There are still a few small pockets of working mills around this part of the country, but mostly just small towns like mine that have been reduced to desolate wastelands, ghosts of their former selves.  But hey, that’s pretty metal, right?  Also, a tiny bit of trivia: the town where I live was founded and first settled in the late 1800′s by immigrants from Essen, Germany – also formerly a center of steel production, but more importantly, the hometown of thrash legends Kreator.

Anyway, there is my brief introduction to my environment, and the (sort of) namesake for this blog.  The immediate area barely has any music scene to speak of, but like I said, I am just over an hour outside of Pittsburgh, where national and international touring acts sometimes deign to visit, so on occasion I am able to make the trip into the city for shows.  Also, I am within about three hours of Cleveland, Columbus, Erie, and Buffalo – all medium-sized markets that sometimes will attract tours even if they don’t come here.  Besides all that, Pittsburgh itself has a small but (somewhat) thriving metal community, so whenever possible, I try to post updates and information about some great local bands that maybe you might not have heard otherwise.  So, there’s that, too.  Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
A Denizen of the Valley