Pittsburgh musicians spread wings, find renewed verve

Robin Meloy Goldsby

While attending Chatham College (now Chatham University), Robin Meloy Goldsby lived in Chatham Village and played the piano at Chatham Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. By the time she was 21, Goldsby longed to escape to a city where, presumably, there were fewer Chathams.

“I had already been working professionally in Pittsburgh and wanted to see what more I might accomplish,” says Goldsby, who moved to New York City in 1980. “I’m not sure if Pittsburgh is a small big town, or a big small town, but in either case I wanted to stretch out.”

Goldsby’s gambit paid off. She became a featured performer in Manhattan at venues such as The Grand Hyatt, The Plaza and The Waldorf Astoria, and now lives in Germany, where she is a Steinway Artist and composer, and performs at concert halls across the country.

Like other musicians who were born or lived in Pittsburgh, Goldsby found her musical career benefited from a change of scenery. While some artists thrive here, there’s a case to be made for leaving one’s comfort zone for the uncertainty of new surroundings.

Joy Ike

Five years ago, Joy Ike felt like her career had plateaued. She was comfortable in Pittsburgh, but also thought she could benefit from challenging herself in a bigger city.

Ike looked east. Philadelphia felt right. Her keyboard-driven sound — with various elements of pop, soul, funk and African music — has blossomed in a city that has long been known for diverse musical styles.

“I didn’t move to Philly specifically for that reason,” Ike says of the city’s musical heritage, “but it has become what I love most about Philadelphia. I love living in an incredibly culturally diverse neighborhood and I love Philly’s grit, which I think has a lot to do with its cultural diversity. I think some of that grit has rubbed off on me and I’m better for it.”

Billy Price

Billy Price also moved from Pittsburgh to the East Coast. After almost five decades in Western Pennsylvania, Price moved to Baltimore in 2018 for family reasons.

He was content and revered in Pittsburgh. But the soul singer — who has collaborated with legends such as Otis Clay and Roy Buchanan, and performed at musical festivals around the world, including the recent Lucerne Blues Festival in Switzerland — also was increasingly aware that his status in Western Pennsylvania could lead to complacency.

“Whenever they call you a legend, that means they are done with you,” he says, laughing. “I still have passion for what I’m doing. I could have stayed in Pittsburgh and played the same places over and over again. But I wanted to expand a bit, and the idea of moving appealed to me.”

Price has found that clubs in Baltimore are more restrictive — artists often must sign agreements that prevent them from playing competing clubs for certain periods of time — but also more diverse. When he performs “A Nickel and a Nail” by O.V. Wright, or Bobby Byrd’s “We’re in Love,” Price is singing to a different type of audience than he had in Pittsburgh.

“Part of what I like is that I’m working in an African American musical style, and Baltimore is a very integrated city,” Price says. “And Pittsburgh is not. You go to my shows and it’s all white audiences (in Pittsburgh). And that’s not the case here or in (Washington) D.C., and I like that.”

Nick Ziegler

Beaver County native Nick Ziegler played drums for a few local bands before he entered the U.S. Coast Guard in the early 1980s. Stationed in California, he had visited the Golden State prior to his enlistment, loved the Los Angeles music scene, and decided to move west permanently after his enlistment was over.

He was taking class at a junior college when he made connections that led to being hired as the drummer for Mary’s Danish (he played drums on the band’s biggest hit, “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight”) before playing in The Leonards and his current band, The Forty Nineteens.

“I think at that time, there were (more opportunities to play music than in Pittsburgh),” Ziegler says. “I was able to find myself around more musicians.”

Those musicians ranged from hair bands to funk outfits to New Wave poseurs. Ziegler was drawn to bands and artists such as the Beat Farmers, the Palominos and Rosie Flores, who were considered to be on the alt-country spectrum. The idea that one could go out any night and hear almost any type of music convinced Ziegler, who also works in television and film as a lighting technician, that he made the right choice to leave Western Pennsylvania.

“I think about a lot of things,” says Ziegler, who was 22 when he moved west. “The work environment (in Pittsburgh), how my father used to tell me whatever cards you’re dealt, make them work for you. I tell people, younger guys, that all the time. You just have to take what you’re given and make it work.”

When Goldsby returned to Pittsburgh for a few shows earlier this year, she noticed that the Downtown area seemed “vibrant, almost pulsing with youthful, artistic energy … a far cry from the Downtown ghost town vibe of recent decades.” Seeing Pittsburgh’s transformation was heartening, yet she knows she made the right decision leaving even as the lessons she learned here have stood her well.

“I work in a cutthroat business but have clung to my Pittsburgh skills of diplomacy, kindness and willingness to listen,” Goldsby says. “Basic human decency, part of the (local) DNA, has carried me far and wide.”

For Ike, leaving gave her quicker access to markets in New York, New Jersey and the rest of the Eastern Seaboard. She’s flourishing playing with new bandmates, and diversifying her sound.

“Pittsburgh was such a great incubator and launching pad,” says Ike. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to begin there and that I can always return with a warm welcome.”