Stories told through song are at the heart of all great country music. But the type of story being told is what differentiates one country song from the next. It's always been about hearing the lifestyle in the story, Munsick explains. That’s what separates country music from every other style—the ability for the artist to tell a story.

For Ian, that story is undeniably Wyoming.

If you were to ask why Munsick is a country music artist, it’s simple. I have the responsibility of bringing the authentic West to as many people as I can because I'm one of the few people who grew up in that lifestyle in country music. It's just my responsibility to bring the West to the rest.

Wyoming is nature in its purest form. Her rugged mountains, burnt orange canyons, and untamed rivers bring beauty and mystery—an unexplained natural phenomenon. There’s a certain mystery and magic that is infused with Wyoming. It's the least populated state, which means that it's still wild. It is the Wild West, he explains. But it’s not simply that Munsick is inspired by Wyoming, he’s beholden to it. I feel like I have an opportunity to paint a picture through my music that many people have never experienced with their own eyes. I get to play into the mystery, which helps my music and helps capture an audience that has never even been to Wyoming.

Every melody he plays breathes new life and awareness about the Cowboy State: his home. My music is inspired by where I grew up and the culture that I grew up in. And a lot of people in country music don't know the culture out here, and it's never really been exposed in country music. It's all about places like Texas, places like Georgia, places like Tennessee, places that are far away from Wyoming and Montana. So, to be able to put an image to my music, I think they pair hand-in-hand.

For Munsick, the term country means land, which is the root of country music for him. That’s always been a big part of my music: capturing the relationship between the land and the people that live with the land. And nothing is more quintessentially country music than the dirt beneath our feet.

While the peaceful croons of Wyoming serve as Munsick’s creative inspiration, maintaining his artistic integrity comes at a cost. Radio stations are known to play what their audiences are familiar with, and Munsick gets little to no airtime. A kid from Wyoming comes in with a fiddle and sings about banjos and mountains and prairies and horses and cattle… and hasn’t been on the radio really ever, he explains. I do feel pressure to try and fit that mold.

But feeling that pressure and succumbing to it are entirely different. With country music, the trends always change. But for me growing up in Wyoming where nothing ever changes, it's pretty easy to just come back here and be reminded of who I am and what my mission is as a country artist.

Munsick wants to be heard because his music has a purpose—he is an advocate of the West—but he is determined to go by the beat of his own drum. His solid cowboy roots come first. I've made it this far without [changing my sound]. At the end of the day, I never made music to write hits. I started making music to express who I am and what the West is. And so as long as I'm staying true to that, then I'll have hits in my own book.

For Munsick, that means setting artistic boundaries. “I create music with people I know who understand who I am. When I'm writing my music, I usually have one or two other people in the room, but I'm pretty particular about who I write with, which is not really the Nashville way of writing music. Usually, they throw two or three people in the room and write a hit, and that has never been my goal as a writer. It's to write what I know and who I am. And so that's the main thing, which is being particular about who I create my music with and knowing that they have a common goal of bringing originality into the music.” Sticking to these core principles—writing and producing his own music—enables his sound to be uniquely recognizable.

While Ian has been public about his struggles getting [his] kind of music played on the radio, his songs have well over a billion streams worldwide. The 30-year-old, seasoned entertainer who has cowboyed by day and played in a family country band by night since early childhood has been howling tunes that are leaving an impactful imprint on newer audiences. Not only does his music resonate deeply within the Western community, but with the rise of urbanites flocking to rural 
America—specifically Munsick’s beloved home state of Wyoming—since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has a newfound fanbase with an impassioned appreciation for his authentic storytelling. A lot of people experienced the West for probably the first time during that period, Munsick explains. And just as we get into this modern age where [material] stuff is more important than it ever has been—money, things that we think are important—I think that people are starting to realize that people and the land are what's most important. As Munsick has been gaining headway, recently touring alongside country music superstars Cody Johnson and Morgan Wallen, there’s no doubt he’s right about the mysticism and allure of the West. Escapism is a huge part of the appeal to the Western lifestyle.

As Munsick continues his ascent, he’s more determined than ever to stay true to his sound—painting a portrait of cowboy country with every song he sings. True country music is when you know that the person on the other end of the microphone is being real, he explains. Nothing is more real than Ian Munsick’s dedication to the cowboy legacy. Despite all his success, despite the outside pressures to attract a mainstream crowd, with a pioneering spirit, Munsick stays true to his roots. I've always felt like, as an artist, if I try and do anything that's not me, even if I did blow up by doing it, I would have a hard time maintaining that because it's not me. It's fake, he explains. I would rather do it the hard way, do it my way, and earn every fan and have longevity [in my music career].

As a native son of Wyoming, Munsick has a deeper aspiration. With the way I was raised, at the end of the day, I would rather be known as a humble dad, husband, and advocate of the West than a popular musician.

Spoken like a true cowboy.