Ian Munsick isn’t shy about being from the Cowboy State. And Tuesday, he’s bringing that pride and love for the West to a national audience.
Munsick has been invited to appear on national television on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” where he will perform his latest single, “God Bless the West.”
But the opportunity to be on Clarkson’s show didn’t come at a particularly opportune time for Munsick.
“My wife and I were on a plane to the Bahamas for my brother’s wedding when we got the text from my PR team,” Munsick said. “And we were like, ‘Well, that’s awesome, but we’re on an airplane right now.’”
The show needed a lightning-fast turnaround — common for television — so Munsick wasn’t quite sure how he and his team were going to pull it off.
But it was also an opportunity that Munsick knew he couldn’t just turn down.
After all, Clarkson is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with more than 82 million records sold around the world, and appearing on her show is a huge boost for the career of any singer.
“Fortunately, we had just recorded a few acoustic live tunes off my new album in a recording studio that we were planning on releasing in a few months,” Munsick said.
Those would be perfect, Munsick was told.
So now, instead of waiting a couple of months, his live recording of “God Bless the West” will debut on a huge national platform.
“I would eventually like to meet her and actually be on the show,” Munsick said. “But a lot of those television musical acts usually are pre-recorded or done in the studio.
“So, it just worked out really well that we had just captured that acoustic live, and it will be a cool flavor, just me and my guitar.”
Second Appearance On Clarkson’s Show
This is not the first time Munsick has appeared on Clarkson’s show.
His song, “Long Live Cowgirls,” was his first appearance. That song got more than a million views from the show — not bad for a cowboy singer songwriter from Wyoming, a state with a population that hasn’t yet reached 600,000.
Bringing the West to the rest has long been Munsick’s motto with the work he does, and that’s the inspiration behind, “God Bless the West.”
In fact, the line is a battle cry at every concert.
“In my live performances, I always scream, ‘God bless the West,’” Munsick said. “Just to kind of hype up the crowd. So, I always thought that would be a cool album name or song title.”
The song has deep personal meaning for Munsick, who thinks of it as a prayer both for the West and for the love of his life, his wife Caroline.
The lyrics of the song are a little ambiguous as a result. Sometimes, Munsick seems to be singing about a place, and sometimes he seems to be singing about a person. And that’s exactly how he planned it.
“I’ve lived in Nashville for 13 years now and every time I come back home to Wyoming, I see how much it’s changed,” Munsick said. “They’re kind of small changes every time, but they can add up over the years.”
So, part of the song is just a prayer that the Wyoming he loves remains true to the values of the West.
“‘God Bless the West’ is really my prayer to God that he will protect the holiness of the West,” Munsick said. “And, not only that, but as I’m traveling around the world, I always want my family to be safe at home.
“And that’s why I have in the song, ‘I wish I could take her with me,’ because I wish that I could take the West with me wherever I go, and I wish that I could take my wife.”
Star Continues To Rise
Munsick’s star continues to rise in the world of country music. Not only has he reached gold and platinum for some of his records, but he’s ticked off quite a few major bucket list items as well, including playing a sold-out show at Red Rocks and, more recently, the announcement that he’ll headline Cheyenne Frontier Days with Travis Tritt as his opening act.
This past summer, Munsick also got to go on tour with Grammy-award winning country music star Lainey Wilson, who took home best country album of the year last year from the 66th annual Grammy Awards for “Bell Bottom Country.”
“I’ve known Lainey for a long time,” Munsick said. “Going on tour with her last year was just incredible. Getting to really spend a lot of time with her out on the road and to watch her perform every night was just incredible.”
It also resulted in a little collaboration with Wilson, which will be on his new album “Eagle Feather,” dropping April 18.
The collaboration came about thanks to a little impromptu dinner party with Wilson at her home — an occasion that usually ends with a gathering around a campfire, where the artists play and sing each other tunes.
Munsick played Wilson a new song he thought she might just like, called “Feather in my Hat.”
“I knew, because Lainey is one of the few other artists that wears a feather in her hat, I knew that would kind of jump out at her,” Munsick said.
And sure enough, by the last chorus, Wilson was singing along.
But Munsick played it a little on the cool side at first.
“I was just kind of like, ‘All right, cool, I’m glad that you like it,’” he said.
Later, recording it in the studio, he made up his mind that he was definitely going to try to get Wilson on the track as well.
“When I gave it to her, she’s like, ‘Yes I definitely want to do this song, it’s beautiful,” Munsick said. “It feels like a hit.”
So Munsick brought his recording gear with him while on tour, to make the track an easy fit for Wilson’s busy schedule.
“She hopped on my bus for an hour and then we recorded the song,” Munsick said. “And I’m not the kind of guy who wants to ask anything of anybody, especially somebody like Lainey.
“Everybody in the world wants to be on a tune with her. But that one, in particular, just kind of had her name all over it.”
Taking The Bob Dylan Tack
Munsick, who has bought a house in Wyoming recently and is planning a return to the Cowboy State, said he’s not really focused on the roller coaster that is the music industry.
He’s going to take a page from Bob Dylan’s playbook, and just keep making his music as long as possible to see where it takes him.
Dylan, Munsick added, is a musician he didn’t really like at first. But as Munsick himself matures, he’s come to better appreciate Dylan as an artist, who is still making music at age 83.
“He didn’t underestimate the intelligence of his audience,” Munsick said. “Where I feel like when we’re writing, there’s a lot of like, ‘Oh well, are people going to understand this?’ Well, you don’t always have to spell it out. There’s a lot of intelligent people out there who can have their own truth through your lyrics.”
Ups and downs will always come and go, Munsick added.
“There will be a day where my star starts to fall,” he said. “I’m well aware of that, and hopefully it’s not for a long time. But I don’t make music to be a star. I make music because I love making music.”
And he loves the memories he’s making on the music trail as a cowboy singer songwriter born and raised in Sheridan, Wyoming.
“Being a Wyoming kid, you kind of feel isolated just because there’s not a lot of us out there,” he said. “And there’s a lot of space in between all of us out there. But the sky is the limit, and you can do whatever you need to do, and just because you’re from a place that doesn’t have maybe as many outlets as other places, doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen.”
Wyoming, Munsick added, has given him the perfect foundation for pursuing an unlikely dream, like a career in the music business.
“The thing that Wyoming has taught me more than anything is just how to put your head down and stay humble and work hard,” Munsick said. “And that’s a lesson that I’ll always have through growing up on a ranch in Wyoming. It’s just the work ethic, and I think that is one thing that most people who are from Wyoming have.”
The Kelly Clarkson Show airs weekdays on a variety of radio and television stations. Local listings and their times are online here. The show also streams online at Peacock, and there is a YouTube channel with clips and full episodes as well.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
