Meet The Author

Hello! My name is William, but I go by Rusty and I'm a 33-year-old United States Army Veteran with one tour in Afghanistan. I was born and raised in Mt. Washington, Kentucky but now I currently reside in the Houston, Texas area.
My love for traditional country music started early, passed down from my father's devotion to Keith Whitley. When I got my first guitar at age 10, that love turned into an obsession with the real stuff that hasn't let up since. I also am a husband and father!

I started writing monthly Player of the Month articles highlighting current pedal steel guitar players in the genre back in August of 2025 several years after I started this brand, and the response I got from those articles, the messages from people who were just as hungry for content about real country music, made me realize there was a community out there that needed this. That's what pushed me to FINALLY build this website for KTCA and start doing more than just those monthly features.

I founded this publication because I was tired of watching real country music get buried by mainstream Nashville's pop crossover machine. While the industry chases TikTok trends and stadium tours, I write about the artists, venues, and songs that keep traditional country breathing.

My mission is simple: document, celebrate, and defend the music that matters. It's a fight I plan to keep up until I'm six feet in the ground.