There’s a fresh new voice in country by the name of Ian Munsick. And with his just-released album debut, Coyote Cry, he’s showing fans how the West was fun.
One of Sounds Like Nashville’s 17 New Country Artists to Watch for 2021, Munsick’s been drawing early attention by branding soaring vocals and high-energy hooks to songs rooted in the Western experience — and in the process, repping a region that’s been all but ignored over the last few decades. But these aren’t the lonesome cowboy ballads of generations past.
From sky-high acoustic covers of Fleetwood Mac, to danceable ranch romance and saloon-stomping stampedes, Coyote Cry pulls its inspiration from pop, hip-hop, rock and country. And following its February 26 release, it’s just about the most Western fun you can have that doesn’t involve a saddle.
A Wyoming born true son of the Rockies, Munsick comes by his love of Western culture honestly. He grew up with a bunch of brothers on the family’s ranch in Sheridan, working the land and learning the skills it takes to thrive in the harsh high country. But he was also immersed in music, owing to a father who’s an accomplished fiddle player and a family band (The Munsick Boys), who played gigs all up and down the mountain time zone — and even internationally.
Together with their dad, The Munsick Boys specialized in Western standards by the likes of Chris LeDoux and others, but also crowd pleasers by artists like The Beatles and more. And as the youngest brother, Munsick was eager to show his worth, developing a stratospheric vocal falsetto to nail incredible harmonies, and the ability to play guitar, banjo, bass and more. After moving to Nashville to attend Belmont University, though, the real-deal cowpuncher found a new range to roam.
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Munsick began writing his own tunes and even won the award for iHeartRadio’s Rocky Mountain Song of the Year for the old-timey “Horses Are Faster.” And by applying that mile-high vocal to radioactive country-pop covers like Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” he built a solid social-media following. Fans seemed to love the authentic sound, but also the almost-innocent joy Munsick seem to get from it, and Coyote Cry features a full dose of both.
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The album’s “Humble” is a good place to start. With the bouncy beat of a covered wagon and lyrics about the timeless art of manliness, it finds Munsick making the cowboy way cool again. “A real man’s gonna look you in the eye / Admit it when he’s wrong ’cause the truth it don’t lie,” goes the uptempo chorus, with Munsick’s voice catching attention like a lasso.
A Looney Tune-ish animated video was released for the track in early February, giving a sense of the lighthearted spirit behind it. But there are plenty more good times to be had.
Tracks like “Mountain Time,” for example, feature beaming fiddles and a literal coyote cry, with vivid imagery pulled straight from the Munsick homestead that proclaims his Western devotion. “I See Country” offer an excited singalong about coming down off the mountain with a vocal that could make Adam Levine jealous. “She Was Right” pairs a gritty banjo groove with sampled beats and bluesy hook. And then there’s the studio-version of Munsick’s incredible “Dreams” cover.
With hair as long as a late-’70s Stevie Nicks and a voice that’s actually higher, the Wyoming native somehow finds a rootsy way of make the eternally-vibing track his own — even in a year that found the original blow up in viral posts across the world.
But despite all that, the first look many fans get will be of Munsick’s serious side. With the epic “Long Haul,” the singer-songwriter stakes out the bounds of his sonic territory — and promises to stick to the trail. Written in tribute to slow-and-steady romantic devotion, it paints Ian Munsick as both a lover and a fighter of sorts, with a gorgeous, windblown sound and all the self-determination his early life taught him.
The track will soon be spinning on country radio, and even though the Western lifestyle was once a much bigger part of the genre, it feels now like a fresh shot in the arm. Some fans already agree, with “Long Haul” cracking Spotify’s US Viral 50 chart just before the album’s release, and that’s a good setup for a project that features an authentic progressive sound, smart writing and tons of forward-looking energy. Hopefully it also signals this cowboy won’t be riding into the sunset anytime soon.