Saving Country Music’s purpose is spelled out in its name. It offers news, opinion, reviews, commentary, criticism, artist profiles, music history, in-depth investigations on critical issues affecting the music community, and occasional over-the-top sarcasm on the worst of today’s popular country music.
Saving Country Music primarily focuses on traditional and independent country music, but also covers many forms of roots music, including bluegrass, folk, Americana, singer/songwriter artists, rockabilly, and blues. First and foremost, Saving Country Music is an advocate for the independent approach to music, and the fostering of community through grassroots efforts.
Even though Saving Country Music is a music-based website, it works from the core principles that the focus should be people first, then music, and that music is just the excuse to explore deeper issues throughout culture.
Saving Country Music consistently receives on average of 1.5 million unique visitors a month.
About ‘Trigger’
Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos is the editor, creator, head writer, and benevolent dictator of Saving Country Music. His writing inspired the Eric Church song “Country Music Jesus,” and some believe Taylor Swift’s anti-bullying hit “Mean” is about him. Always focusing on finding the next great country artist, Trigger was the first journalist to discover Sturgill Simpson, and the first to interview Zach Bryan among many other firsts and discoveries. He officially changed his pen name from “The Triggerman” to “Trigger” in 2012.
Trigger is a published author, who released his debut novel Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board in 2023. He previously contributed to numerous volumes of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader and other periodicals such as The Taos News and the Ashland Sneak Preview. He’s also written for other music sites and periodicals such as American Songwriter, Farce The Music, The 9153, outlawmagazine.com, ninebullets.net, RNZ Magazine, 3rd Coast Music, the Rambler Magazine, and UK’s Country Music Magazine.
He has been quoted and interviewed by The New York Times (read), (read) (read), and (read), New York Magazine (read), Billboard (read) and (read), The New York Post (read), TIME Magazine (read), The Boston Globe (read), the BBC (listen) and (listen), CBS News (read), CNN (read), The Washington Post (read), (read), and (read), Fox News (read), (read), (read), and (read), The Houston Chronicle (read), Elle (read), Playboy Magazine (read), Entertainment Weekly (read), Variety (read) The Daily Beast (read), Barstool Sports (read), Bloomberg Businessweek (read), Gawker (read), MacLean’s (read) The Hollywood Reporter (read), The Tennessean (read) and (read), Houston Press (read), National Post (read), The Milwaukee Record (read), Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (read), The Atlantic (read), Texas Standard (listen), On The Forcheck (read), 106.7 The Fan (listen) Country 92.5 (listen), and many other news outlets.
You can hear in-depth interviews with Trigger on The Burning Castle Podcast as well as the Good Neighbor Get Together Podcast.
Trigger is also been rumored to have an alter ego, pop country star Michael Jackson Montgomery; a rumor he adamantly denies.
How Saving Country Music Began
Saving Country Music was founded in April of 2008 as a blog on MySpace called “Free Hank III.” Free Hank III and freehank3.org were formed to put pressure on Hank Williams III’s label Curb Records to release his albums. Hank III had been lip locked by a provision in his contract that stipulated he could not speak out against Curb, so Free Hank III was an organization of Hank III fans, DJ’s, podacsters, and other musicians who spoke out against Curb Records on Hank III’s behalf to pressure the label to release his music in a timely manner.
In July of 2008, Free Hank III helped win the release of Hank III’s album Damn Right, Rebel Proud, and on January 1st, 2010, Hank III was finally released from his contractual obligations with Curb Records, marking the end of Free Hank III.
Free Hank III also covered independent country and roots artists during its run, as well as the rest of the country music world from an independent perspective. Free Hank III became Saving Country Music as the focus began to shift to the larger issues facing the country genre and the preservation of its roots.