Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there, folks, welcome to The Roundup. We're a podcast featuring voices, opinions and perspectives from interesting people in the Cowboy State. I'm your host, Wendy Corr. And today we have such an interesting person as our guest! Today, we have ‘songteller,’ Dave Munsick. And yes, ‘songteller' is really accurate when you're talking about all of the things that he has done, and the way that he has influenced so many people, including his three sons, who you probably have heard of!
But I want to get started here talking with Dave. Dave, you started at all as a song teller, a songwriter, a storyteller. Dave, tell us, 42 years ago, you made Wyoming your home - why? Why did you choose Wyoming? Because obviously, I think it probably fits you really well.
Dave Munsick:
I was I was in a ‘ramblin’ through the country’ era of my life, and I had come up from New Mexico. I'd been living in the Gila country of southwestern New Mexico and just needed a change. And I came to Wyoming looking for a packer job, packing horses, and ended up on a ranch - and something about it really fit me, I guess. Just the small town atmosphere in the whole state, combined with all people who didn't wear their hearts on their sleeve, didn't wear their dreams too loudly for others, to get in other people's faces, I guess, And I just ended up settling down and having kids and getting married and making a life.
Wendy Corr:
And you're in Sheridan, is that correct? That's your home base, is Sheridan?
Dave Munsick:
Yeah, we're in Sheridan County. We're actually at just outside of Dayton, on the Montana line.
Wendy Corr:
And a beautiful, beautiful part of the country, and I think that that probably influences so much of your music. Tell us about your music, and when you got started writing music and performing music, Dave.
Dave Munsick:
Oh, boy, you know, music and me have been partners for a long time. My mom was very musical. And I can remember sitting on the piano bench with her, back when your legs would just go straight out, you were too little to bend your knees or whatever, and singing harmony with her. And I guess I was probably three years old. And I picked up guitar when I was about 12, and played jazz piano when I was a teenager a little bit. I got into all kinds of different music, classical music, jazz music, country music, folk music, bluegrass music, Cajun music, Mexican music, whatever.
Then I picked up fiddle when I was 21 and started to play bluegrass, did that. And old-timey music, did that until I was in my probably mid 20s, when I went on the road and played a little bit with a idol of mine, Junior Doherty, who was a New Mexico champion fiddler. And I played country with him, and swing.
I moved to Wyoming and joined a band called the Powder River Boys. And we had quite a run for a while, playing anything from country rock to swing, to soul, to jazz, to whatever. Dance music.
Wendy Corr:
I remember the Powder River Boys!
Dave Munsick:
My music has really been influenced by that, and by rhythm - by people's dancing feet. And being able to play dance music for 50 years of my life has been a real blessing to me.
Wendy Corr:
Dave, you've been able to play some really amazing venues. You have played the National Finals Rodeo. You have played the Grand Ole Opry - tell me about this! That's the pinnacle of any country music, instrumentalist or performer’s, dream, is to play at the Grand Ole Opry. Tell me about that.
Dave Munsick:
You know, by far those large venues have been opened to me by my kids, by my boys.
The Grand Ole Opry - actually, I got to play there, and I got to play at the Ryman Auditorium as well at a different time. They were both with my son Ian. And he had his Opry debut, and called me up and he said, “They want me to use the Opry Band, dad.” And I said, “Boy, that's awesome.” And he said, “I don't want to use them. I just want to use you. Can you come back and play it with me?”
So that was a big night for me and a big night for him, for sure, to be on that stage where people like Hank Williams had stood, and playing our - I played a song with him that I'd played fiddle on, on a recording that he had done when he was, gosh, I bet he was 18 years old.
He'd written a song called “Horses Are Faster,” and we recorded that in our basement. And he had a bunch of big music bigwigs tell him that he needed to change this, and he needed to change that, if he wanted to make that a good song. And I remember, I brought him to this music songwriters festival thing in Denver. And when they were done with him, I asked him, “Okay, do you understand all that stuff that they said?” And he just nodded his head, he said, “Yep.” I said, “So are you going to do it?” He said, “No.” And the last I knew, that song, I think he's got over a half a billion streams now on that song. And it's still got my fiddle on it, from when we recorded it in the basement when he was 18 years old.
Wendy Corr:
That is a phenomenal story. I love that. You've been able to pass this love for music on to your sons - and people will recognize your sons. You mentioned Ian, he’s hugely popular. Tris is also very popular, and Sam is a songwriter as well. Tell me about the Munsick Boys. How did the Munsick Boys get started?
Dave Munsick:
Oh, what a great question, Wendy. You know, I never pushed them or anything like that, I just did my thing. And when they were little, they used to come with me to the Powder River Boys dances and maybe if it got late, they'd sleep on the coats that I'd pile up behind the stage or whatever. So they kind of absorbed a little of that life into their DNA, I guess. And their mom was very supportive of them playing music. They all took piano lessons, I made sure of that when they were young, and I just encouraged them to just play around the house, whatever they had.
So they all played different instruments in grade school, and middle school, and then they slowly started to pick up guitar and bass and fiddle. And long about the time, they were middle school to high school, we started to just play together in the house. And Trudy, my wife, encouraged me to take them out and play for the public with them.
And I hated to do that, because we sounded so God dang bad. But they were just little kids. So I did it. And I never really told them what to do. I just let them kind of evolve on their own with that. And my gosh, you know, they started to get better. And then I started to get good enough where they could hold the rhythm down by themselves and I could start playing fiddle again, instead of pushing the rhythm at them all the time. And after a little while, we started to work out four part harmonies, and it started to get to be real good. And I told Trudy, “Boy, there's a lot here that could really do something.”
But it's been interesting, you know, as we grew as a musical group, at the same time, really all four of us were going in our own directions, as well, musically. So it started to be kind of a Munsick Boys reunion every time we would get together and play, and that's kind of what it is still now. We've all got our own thing, and we've got ourselves as well.
Wendy Corr:
Dave, you do have your own thing. You have not just played all these great country music venues and traveled with the Powder River Boys and done your own thing, you are commissioned to do historical documentaries and to do these wonderful themes and scores for films. How did that get started? Because that's a really niche industry right there.
Dave Munsick:
Well, gosh, you know, first of all, I think you're exaggerating that a little bit, scores on films. I mean, I've played some things for some videos, etc. I think the first one that I remember was a real estate company in Sheridan got a hold of me to put some music to an ad that they had for sale on a ranch. And they sent me the video of it, which was an ingenious video. They had Riatta Branaman, a young woman who was maybe sixteen at the time, with her long blonde ponytail swinging down her back, riding a dark brown horse through the hills, the Bighorn foothills, in the fall. And all the hawthornes were red and the aspens were flickering gold. And she just was riding this horse up and down these hills. And that was the whole ad about the ranch. So I wrote some music for that, and after I listened to it, I thought, well, that'd be a good song. So I wrote a song to that, about Riatta.
And since then, actually since that time, I taught high school science. And I got in there, and then I started to do - I kind of made a musical about the periodic elements of the chemistry thing, you know. So there was a big drama and wars and everything between them and I wrote music for that - I had teamed up with a fella named Dana Wyatt, in Sheridan, and we made things for Earth science classes, and I'd write songs for that. And we did a thing for John D. Loucks, who had founded Sheridan; and I wrote some songs for Don King, and we did interviews with him about King Ropes and King Saddlery. And it's just been, I just love a challenge to do anything like that.
Wendy Corr:
Well, you obviously have done it well, because you've had accolades, you received the Wyoming Governor's Arts Award! What year was that?
Dave Munsick:
That was just this last month, actually. That was a, gosh, what an honor. What a total honor, that my family got that. The Munsick Boys - and they included Trudy in that as an official Boy, we were nominated by the Wyoming Arts Council. And Governor Gordon pushed us through. So that's something that nobody can ever take away, you know, from our family. It's quite an honor.
Wendy Corr
Yes. So what are the other things that you're doing now? Because I'm assuming - are you still teaching science? Or have you moved on, into a retirement?
Dave Munsick:
I’ve moved on to where what I like to do is write stories, and write songs. So that's kind of how I spend my time, and kind of rambling around this world a little bit, ride my horse. And we were just in Africa last month. I got material for lots of stories there, in Kenya and Rwanda. I go down to Mexico, sometimes. I just love to meet different people and start kind of seeing how their life would make a great story. So that's what I'm meant to do, I find out stories.
Wendy Corr:
Song teller. You're being a song teller.
Dave Munsick:
Song teller. Yep. Exactly.
Wendy Corr
Now Dave, I read this, that you had created learning modules for Western history, that other educators can use. Tell me about this, because that's a creative process.
Dave Munsick:
Yeah, I guess that's just how my mind works. You know, when I went to school, to college, long ago, I got a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and In wildlife biology, and I worked for the Game Department in New Mexico. But my brain has always been wired for stories and for music. And I just do it, I just see the world as a melody. And as lyrics, I guess.
And when I was teaching science I just kind of kept dovetailing that into that, and wrote some - as far as Western history, I kind of wrote some things about modern Western culture, wrote some music to them. You know, I was a ranch manager for 15 years, and then used my experience from that in Western culture to try to bring a different dimension to range science. And so I wrote some music for some range science productions that were done for different natural resource conservation districts. I don't know, it's pretty varied.
Wendy Corr:
What an interesting way to use your gifts, and educate about all sorts of different topics. That is wonderful. You are a song teller, tell me a story? What are some of the most memorable performances that you've had? I really want to know, tell me a story about a particular performance that just touched you and that you still carry with you today.
Dave Munsick:
Well, you know, obviously, the ones that just really moved me deeply. were ones that I played with my boys, the Grand Ole Opry, the NFR. The WYO Theater (in Sheridan), I used to get those guys up on that WYO theater. The first time we did that, our knees were knocking, boy. And I'd fought to get us in there. And over the years, I think we’ve performed there 13, 14, 15 years in a row, every Christmas. And by the last time we did that, we were selling out to shows. And just, it was bigger than life.
But more recently, I'd say a performance, if you will, that really got to me, was last month. I sat around a fire with a Maasai warrior, who had been a tracker for us. And he had made himself an instrument, and he was playing a song about his mother and singing it all in Swahili.
And somebody had found an old guitar, a piece of junk, it was a green guitar, and it only had five tuners on it, it was missing a tuner. And Tris was with us, and he found a pair of pliers and he worked on that guitar till we could almost get it in tune. And I picked that thing up, and I sat, and I played Kenyan music on it with this guy, and he just was, he couldn't believe it. And then he wanted me to play something that he could play.
And I told him about a guy named Charlie Pride, who was as black as he was, but that he was so good at sharing what he had inside him, that nobody could see the color of his skin, in a time when people didn't like black colored people in our country. And I sang him “Kiss An Angel Good Morning,” and he played that sucker right along with me. And we both laughed, and just had this big experience.
And anyhow, right at the end of that, I had been traveling with a white guitar pick I had in my pocket. It had just been in my pocket the whole time around Africa. I took that guitar pick, and I looked at it, and I jammed it down into his black palm and I said, “This is where this guitar pick belongs. You have it from now on.”
Wendy Corr:
That story just brings me to tears. That is a beautiful, beautiful way of sharing your Wyoming experience, and your personal experience, with someone a half a world away.
You know, you mentioned that you had Tris with you. Tell us about your boys, because I know you're so proud of them, and their names are so recognizable. Now, I mean, people everywhere know Ian and Tris in particular - tell me about them and their careers, and how that has just exploded.
Dave Munsick:
For sure. That's one of my favorite topics - just shut me up when I’ve said enough.
Ian, you know, that's a crazy thing. He's not only blasted off, but he continues to climb. Just yesterday, somebody sent me a link to an article on him in the “New Yorker.” You know, he's been in “Rolling Stone,” he's got a gig coming up at Carnegie Hall. He's coast to coast now, he continues to write his own kind of stuff, and his wife is a big part of his success. She's his manager, and she kind of organizes how he looks, and just everything about his situation.
Tris works so hard at his music, and he's beginning to reap what he's worked on, sown, for so long. He's got a great band, Tris Munsick and the Innocents. And he's gotten to be very, very popular around kind of the tri-state area. He just just recorded a new album, he went down to San Antonio last fall, and recorded with a real famous steel guitar player. He brought his band down there, and there's a whole pile of great songs that he's about to release. So you'll be hearing from him for a while, very shortly.
Sambo, as we call him, if you've heard him sing, you know he's got a great, great warm baritone voice. He writes great songs. He likes to hide out, he doesn't answer his phone. He doesn't use email. He's on a remote ranch now, down Powder River, running a ranch. And whenever he surfaces, or whenever his wife just makes a little post for him on Instagram, he'll have a thousand hits just right away on that. So people love him.
And I've got him corralled to play a few gigs with me this summer. Tris has me corralled to play fiddle with him a few times this summer. Hopefully, Ian will come to the surface on some big gig and fly me somewhere to play with him. So they're still real close. Those boys are still real close.
Wendy Corr:
You have just the best amazing musical life. But what a close knit family you are. And I'm sure your wife has a lot to do with that as well.
Dave Munsick:
She does. I mean, they check in on her. And, you know, she's been just nothing but supportive. She's the first to tell you that she's not musical, but she does know what she likes. More than that, she knows what she doesn't like, musically. And she lets you know.
Wendy Corr:
That's great. I tell you what, Dave, we're gonna have to wrap this up, because we've had so much to talk about. But tell me what's next for you - what big projects do you have going on? What do you want to do next with your life, because you’ve got years and years left to go, especially if you keep playing that fiddle. There's no end to how long you can play.
Dave Munsick:
That's great to hear that. You know, things I'm excited about, I'm writing on my stories. I wrote up, I made a collection of essays as a book a couple, three years ago called”Songteller: Notes from the Road.” I've got a bunch more of them. I've also got a, I guess you can say, a novelette that I'm writing about my experiences in Africa.
A musical gig I'm really looking forward to this summer, I'm going to play with some some great jazz musicians in Billings. I'm going to sing all the jazz songs and play my fiddle for all the horn parts on Chet Baker and Miles Davis stuff and everything. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm just gonna keep on doing what I've always done, what my gut tells me to do.
Wendy Corr:
And now that you're not teaching, you've got all sorts of time, right? You've got all the flexibility in the world to be able to do that.
Dave Munsick:
That's exactly right.
Wendy Corr:
Dave, this has been such a fun conversation - not only to talk to the guy, who's the dad who started Ian and Tris and these these amazing musicians that everybody knows - but you really did, from the beginning, you made that Wyoming dream come true, that people come to Wyoming for. Tell us about your love for Wyoming, and for your chosen home, and your chosen home state.
Dave Munsick:
Yeah, that's such a great question. You know, I guess - how I can answer that best is in a song that I wrote for our state. I was dared to write a song for our state, for just the general use of the public. And I wrote a song called “Forever West,” which at the time was our logo, our state logo. And the song, I wrote it as intended for a video, so it's got a lot of images in it from around our state. And what's been great is, it's been kind of an underground success that just keeps building around the state. When people hear it, they love it, they think it should be our state song or whatever, but I'm so rewarded by that song - because people, if you're from Wyoming you appreciate the song. You understand what wagon tracks are that take you back, that roll you back into another time. Or you understand what a cabin by herself, neighbors, Brandon them together, boom and bust and hang on, just until the times get better. You understand what those lyrics really mean.
And also, Wyoming to me is about the land and the people and the space between them that allows you to be who you want to be.
Wendy Corr:
Well, you have certainly embodied that. Dave Munsick, thank you so much for your time today, and for being our guest on The Roundup. It's been a delight to get to know you!
Dave Munsick:
Wendy, I'm very grateful to you and for all your readers and listeners. In the words of Ernest Tubb, be better to your neighbors, and you'll have better neighbors.
Wendy Corr:
That's awesome, and perfect, and I need to write that down. That's perfect.
Folks, thank you for tuning into our conversation today with musician and songteller, Dave Munsick. Thanks for tuning into the podcast - tune in next week, we've got more wonderful guests lined up every week! Stay tuned as we chat with another wonderful Wyoming personality about news, views, issues, topics and the people that make this state so great. Have a wonderful week.
