Meet Justin Loretangeli | Founder of Pro Country

We had the good fortune of connecting with Justin Loretangeli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I take the responsibility of sharing artists’ music and stories very seriously, and I want to portray them in the best, most complete way I can. Having the opportunity to interview artists for the last six years is something I don’t take for granted, so I pride myself on the research I do while writing interview questions to make my interviews stand out. I’ve always been a detail-oriented guy while I listen to music. Even as a kid, I thought it was normal to read through CD booklets to see who was responsible for the songs I loved: the producers, the session players, the songwriters, etc. That’s always been a part of the way I’ve consumed music, so when I started writing about it, it was a no-brainer for me, and I hope people can see the care I take in telling artists’ stories when they read the interviews!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
September brought the six-year anniversary of Pro Country, which is mind-boggling to me. It certainly hasn’t always been easy, but being able to say that more than half a decade later, it’s still chugging along is something I take a lot of pride in. In those six years, I’ve interviewed several heroes and shined a light on some of the brightest rising stars that play traditional country music. For a guy from New Jersey that only has a minor in Journalism, that’s pretty cool! When I do interviews, especially the bigger ones with artists who’ve done hundreds of interviews in their careers, I try my hardest to get something out of them that they haven’t shared before, so my interview stands out. Of course, there’s questions you HAVE to ask in order to tell someone’s story, but digging a little deeper and giving their fans new insight into artists they’ve loved for so long is something I really strive to do. And as a massive fan of these artists myself, it’s cool for me to see that too.
I’m most proud of the fact that, as I write this, I’ve interviewed 417 artists on Pro Country. That’s a crazy number to me. Statistics and views are obviously nice, but being able to say I’ve talked to that many artists on a site I started in college is still crazy to me, and I’ve been living it for six years. And I still get the same butterflies in my stomach six years later when an interview is about to start that I got when I first started!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I actually took my first trip to Nashille a few weeks ago, so now is the perfect time to ask this question! We were in Town for five nights, and we spent three of them at the Grand Ole Opry. If you’re a country music fan, the Opry is a MUST visit. We took the backstage tour and were able to take a picture in the famous circle at the end, and the shows were saw there were incredible. The history of that place is so amazing. I could see a show there every single night and never get tired of it.
There is a daytime songwriter’s show at 3rd and Lindsley on Saturdays that was a great time! The crowd was so attentive and in to the music, and hearing songs and stories from the people who wrote them was so much fun. It was one of the highlights of the trip, for sure.
Lastly, I’d say Predators games are a lot of fun! I’m a Devils fan, myself, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to catch a game at Bridgestone while we were in town!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s plenty! First, there were three professors in college that all played a role in Pro Country getting to where it is today. Professor Royek was my first journalism professor, and I wrote my first longform piece about the band Heartland and the song “I Loved Her First” in that class, which, a few years later, helped jumpstart Pro Country.
Professor Garyantes was the first person to tell me that I should consider publishing my work. I wrote a longform piece on 90s country singer David Kersh in her class, and that story, a semester or two later, was the other piece that helped get Pro Country up and running.
Professor Quinn’s class is where Pro Country was started as a semester-long project, which eventually put the idea in my mind to keep the site up and running after the semester ended.
Lastly, all of the PR, record label, management and radio folks, as well as the artists themselves, who trust me to tell artists’ stories. As someone who has had so much more than just a casual interest in music for as long as I can remember, having the opportunity to talk to people I admire so much and build relationships with them is a dream come true, and I couldn’t do it without them!

Website: procountrymusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/procountrymusic/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-loretangeli-b4a23713a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/procountrymusic/

Other: https://procountrymusic.com/2023/06/05/blame-it-on-texas-the-mark-chesnutt-story-so-far/ https://procountrymusic.com/2022/08/25/go-live-your-life-the-wade-hayes-story-so-far/