Balthrop, Alabama

You may have heard that the town of Balthrop was founded in 1847 in Alabama's Iron Belt. You might also have heard that Balthrop was once a booming steel town, but these days it has relaxed into an easier pace, providing a home to a close-knit community of shopowners, innkeepers, handymen, farmers, students, and a milkman. They do a pretty good job of keeping each others' secrets. Or so you may have heard.

In fact, the band Balthrop, Alabama was formed in early 2006 in Brooklyn, New York by Alabama-born songwriter-siblings Pascal and Lauren Balthrop and eight or nine of their musically-inclined neighbors. They get together every so often to sing songs about dead people in love.