An OPEN LETTER to … the Valley’s Live & Local Music Crowd …

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Singers, songwriters, musicians, venue owners, booking agents, sound and lighting folks, roadies, groupies, bouncers, and anyone else involved with the orchestration of the region’s live and local music scene:

It’s with every note that you better a day, an evening, a weekend, and, likely, most folks don’t understand what goes into every song and each set you play.

That’s why we’re writing.

For as long as most of us have been alive, music has been an imperative part of our quality of life in the Wheeling area, dating back to a time when theatres filled our downtowns and variety shows crowded those stages. From New Martinsville and Woodsfield to Moundsville and Wheeling – and all the way up to Steubenville and Weirton – we have long entertained each other with celebratory creation.

And, yes, we’ve always been thankful you’ve even included our uncalculated cowbells.

Unless soiled purposely, music perpetually unifies us without warning with its rhythms and its melodies, and that’s why we dance and why we sing when lucky enough to break free from the bustle to be there to feel every vibration for ourselves.

It’s the escape we appreciate most, and we pray our love for your music doesn’t outlast your love for making it.

Sincerely,

Grateful Souls

Steve Novotney
Steve Novotney
Steve Novotney has been a professional journalist for 33 years, working in print for weekly, daily, and bi-weekly publications, writing for a number of regional and national magazines, host baseball-related talks shows on Pittsburgh’s ESPN, and as a daily, all-topics talk show host in the Wheeling and Steubenville markets since 2004. Novotney is the co-owner, editor, and co-publisher of LEDE News, and is the host of “Novotney Now,” a daily program that airs Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m. on River Talk 100.1 & 100.9 FM.

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