Greg Klyma

But singer/songwriter Greg Klyma, a Buffalo-area native, knows there's more to his city than TV news images of bundled-up souls braving the winter cold. It's true that Buffalo has seen better days; like most of upstate New York, it has struggled as residents have migrated south and manufacturing has moved overseas. Klyma finds a lot of inspiration in the region's history, though, and he thinks they may even provide some guideposts for a better future.

"At the turn of the last century -- from the 1800s to the 1900s -- Buffalo was the place to live. There were jobs there, and opportunities abounded. Now, Buffalo is redefining itself -- and in the meantime, people are slow to accept change," Klyma said in a recent interview. "It's interesting that people will think of Buffalo as an industry town even though the industry is gone, and they'll think of it as a sports town even though the sports teams are hardly accomplished -- but they won't think about it as a cultural or musical or artistic town, even though it has had an ongoing and vibrant art scene and music scene."

Klyma's fifth and latest album, Rust Belt Vagabond (self-released last year), emerged from an off-hand comment heard at the Sportsman's Tavern, Buffalo's "honkiest-tonkiest beer joint in town." At the time, he was struggling to find a direction for his songwriting energies, demoing 30 or 40 tunes and passing them around to his musical peers for advice. A mid-winter night out with friends provided the necessary spark of inspiration.