It’s not uncommon for artists to circle back to their beginnings as they grow and gain experience. This is especially true once they begin to realize that what had once been downplayed as “beginner’s luck” may actually have been the heart and soul of their journey.
That certainly seems the case for Sheridan singer songwriter Ian Munsick, who has just announced that he’s bringing his roadshow back to the West this fall.
The Country & Western tour, sponsored by Boot Barn, starts Sept. 6 in Montana and ends Oct. 5 in Casper. Planned stops include concerts in Washington, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Idaho in between.
“We’ve done a lot of stuff with (Boot Barn) in the past and they really remodeled their whole company a few years ago,” Munsick told Cowboy State Daily about his partnership with the company. “They’re just really trying to capture the real West, not the Hollywood West, not the tacky West.
“And they’ve done a really great job of physically bringing their marketing and their branding teams out to Wyoming and Montana and Texas to capture the real deal.”
Love-Hate Relationship With Western Popularity
The West has been having a pop culture moment lately, with television shows like “Yellowstone” and Craig Johnson’s “Longmire” capturing millions of eyeballs.
That’s driving a craving for all things Western, and the Wyoming West in particular. Munsick has a bit of a love-hate relationship with all that.
“One of the things that makes Wyoming so special is that there’s nobody there,” Munsick said. “And, unfortunately, just with the popularity of the West and the Wyoming way of life, I think more people are going to move there.”
By the same token, Munsick really wants to spread the Wyoming way.
“There’s not a lot of us from Wyoming in general,” he said. “And the population in country music from Wyoming is even smaller. And so, I think that I have a responsibility to spread that to the masses in country music to hopefully make it a better place.”
To that end, Munsick has spent a lot of time developing a fan base on the East Coast with his motto of bringing the real West to the rest.
That has meant, rather ironically, that Munsick hasn’t played out West as much.
“But that’s where the majority of my audience is,” Munsick said. “And obviously, it is very important for us to continue to come back to where it all started and where a lot of my Day One audience is, so I’m very excited to go on this tour and we’re playing some of the biggest venues that I have played yet.”
Homecoming
The Country & Western tour has lined up artists like Shane Smith & The Saints, Randy Rogers Band, Bryan Martin, Ole 60 and Zandi Holup to name a few, and it’s going to make the Rocky Mountain region, where Munsick got his start, a primary focus.
The Wyoming concert, meanwhile, will be Munsick’s biggest in the Cowboy State yet and, if he has his way, it’s going to be something quite special.
“That is still half a year away,” Munsick said. “But we’ll do some cool stuff, and it will be a unique one. We’ll probably have a unique set list that will be tailored to Wyoming, and I’m sure I’ll bring up some special guests as well.”
The concert is only Munsick’s third in Wyoming since rising to national prominence. He’s played Cheyenne Frontier Days once before, as well as Casper.
“This will definitely be a homecoming for me,” Munsick said. “Just to be able to come back home, to the place that gave me the confidence to pursue music and to move to Nashville and help represent Wyoming and country music. I’m excited for that.”
'White Buffalo' Goes Deluxe
Munsick is fresh off the just-released deluxe version of his 2023 “White Buffalo” album, which includes five new songs.
“I think each track has its own unique flavor of the West,” Munsick told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s a bluegrass tune, there’s a tune about nature, there’s one just about the cowboy way of life, and there’s one about the bolos, and so I think it just really captures every corner of country and western music.”
Rather than a knife, the bolos Munsick refers to are the generally thin-strapped neckties made of braided leather or cords, held in place with an ornamental clasp or slide. He typically wears one anytime he’s on stage.
A deluxe album generally only happens if it’s been particularly well-received, Munsick told Cowboy State Daily. And “White Buffalo’s” initial release did do exceptionally well, with accolades coming in from Billboard, American Songwriter, People and MusicRow.
Continuing out the theme of the “White Buffalo” album happened organically, Munsick said, and was partly a result of the “headspace” he was in after making the album.
“That’s a pretty heavy theme that, in my opinion, hasn’t been hit on in country music,” he said. “And it’s part of the education that the country music audience needs about the real West. I think it was so important that we put that out.”
Wyoming Strong
Many of Munsick’s accolades highlight how the Wyoming born and raised cowboy has successfully woven his ranching roots into authentic songs and stories that resonate with a much wider national audience.
Wyoming-strong music is going to continue to be a theme with his next album, Munsick told Cowboy State Daily, but he does plan a bit of an artistic circle right back around to his beginnings. He’s going to lean back in to some things that he feels made his breakout hit “Horses are Faster” so successful in 2013.
“I put that out when I was 19 years old,” Munsick said. “I made it in Wyoming, just all on my own, in my parent’s basement.”
The song did so well that Nashville took note of the young artist, and it’s part of what ultimately brought him out to the nation’s country music capitol. It was a place where he could immerse himself in a culture that attracts some of the world’s best songwriters, and he could also study music at Belmont University.
The Nashville influence, and the knowledge he’s gained as a result, comes through in his latest work.
“Like if you listen to ‘Introduce You To God,’ for example, there’s a string section on there,” Munsick said. “There’s big drums. It’s almost like an orchestra is on there. Which I think is cool, because I had never done that before.”
Now that he has though, he is turning back and looking at his first hit with a more seasoned eye.
“It’s ironic. You spend all that time developing your skills as a writer, as a producer, as an artist, and then you realize, like, ‘Hey man, why don’t we just go back to that style that 20-year-old kid in Wyoming did, before he knew anything about anything?’” Munsick said. “But I heard a quote one time that beginner’s luck is God telling you that you’re on the right path, and you should pursue that.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
