Today, rock legend Joe Grushecky releases: "Goodbye Steeltown," one of 35 remastered tracks plucked from the artist's expansive career and put in the upcoming collection: "Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology," out on May 24 via Omnivore Recordings.
(Photo : Danny Clinch)
About 'Goodby Steeltown' and Joe Grushecky's New Projects
The classic single and the other songs in the 2-disc anthology set were given a new life by multiple Grammy winner Michael Graves and are co-produced by Grushecky himself and multiple Grammy-winning artist Cheryl Pawelski.
That said, the anthology is only one of two projects that the rock 'n' roll artist have recently announced, the other being his completely new studio album: "Can't Outrun A Memory," which marks the first set of new material in 7 years from Joe and The Housrockers.
This forthcoming record, slated for release on July 12 similarly via Omnivore, features 13 Grushecky originals with the addition of a blistering cover of The Animals' classic bop: "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place."
With the newly released remaster of "Goodbye Steeltown," Grushceky recalled: "The Steel Industry was a defining part of our lives growing up in coal country as a kid and living in Pittsburgh as an adult. There was no escaping it."
"I vividly remember reading the newspaper one morning in 1984 about another steel mill shutting down," he continued. "I recall saying out loud to nobody in particular 'That's It. Goodbye Steeltown.' I grabbed my guitar and the song just poured out of me."
The artist added that the band he was a part of during the 1970s, the Iron City Houserockers, was in the middle of dispersing at the time he was working through the song, saying, "We were lucky to assemble a group of legendary Pittsburgh musicians and rush into Jeree's Studio to record it."
That "luck" has blossomed into the rebirth of the song decades later, now becoming available once more to many of Grushecky's fans.
Stream the remastered "Goodbye Steeltown" by clicking here or listening to the track below.
