Steve Moakler has been making a name for himself in Nashville for 10 years now—and on his new album, he's returning to his roots in Western Pennsylvania. 

Steel Town is a country record, but the stories it tells and the characters it elevates are very much rooted in Pittsburgh—the Steel City—and its surrounding areas. For Moakler, this homecoming is paired with a liberation, one where his songwriting and his performing are a full reconciliation of who he is. "I've had the title Steel Town in my head for a long time. But I've been very intimidated; where I'm from means so much to me, and there's a lot of pride in Pittsburgh and in the Rust Belt. I wanted to honor that. 

"This is my fourth album, but it feels like in a lot of ways, it's the first time I'm ever going back and talking about the earlier chapters of my life and where I'm from."

Steel Town was produced by Luke Laird, a fellow native of western Pennsylvania. "I can't imagine making the record with somebody else," Moakler says of Laird, who co-wrote "Suitcase" (with Barry Dean and Thomas Rhett) and the ruminative "Just Long Enough." "Being from western Pennsylvania, Laird knew exactly what 'Steel Town' means. He was the perfect partner for the record."

That recognition of how much Moakler was influenced by his home is the product of being in Nashville for a decade, as well as the result of a keenly honed instinct about people and their relationships. Moakler's insight into not just himself, but the world at large, animates the songs on Steel Town, making it a fiercely personal project that will resonate far and wide.

"When I first came to Nashville, I wasn't thinking about where I was from—that didn't cross my mind," Moakler recalls. "All I was thinking about was where I was going. I think that's perfectly normal for an 18-year-old; you're running as fast as you can and ready to conquer the world. 

"It's taken being this far into my life to really understand where I'm from, and how much I'm a product of it," says Moakler. "I don't think I could've written a record called Steel Town and understood what that meant right after I left. It's taken 10 years to appreciate where I'm from and to have been hundreds of other places and to realize what's so unique about my hometown. I left a long time ago, but they imparted all this stuff into me. And that's what I have to bring to the world.”

i just like music. sometimes i make it. most of the time i just soak it in.

Krista Basham Meyer is following