Submitted photo / Ben Christensen
Ian Munsick brings his “Eagle Flies Free” tour to Packard Music Hall on Friday.
In country music, maybe more than any other genre, success is driven by radio airplay.
Ian Munsick is defying that idea. The Wyoming-born singer-songwriter’s music has been streamed more than a billion times despite not having a single a top-40 country hit. It’s not that he doesn’t want one, but he’s had individual songs streamed close to 100 million times and been able to tour with top-drawing country acts like Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson, and headline his own tours without the embrace of country radio.
His current “Eagle Flies Free” tour includes a show Friday at Packard Music Hall.
“I attribute that (success) to the loyalty of my fans, the people that come to my concerts,” Munsick said during a telephone interview from a tour stop in Bakersfield, California. “They know every word to every tune. I’ve just had a label in the past (Warner Nashville) that just could not get radio to work for me, But I have partnered with a new team this year (Triple Tigers) that I think that we’re going to change that. Radio is obviously a huge piece of the puzzle, and I’ve been very blessed to get this far without a hit on the radio, but I know that when that hit happens, it’s going to be big.”
Munsick admitted the lack of radio exposure has been frustrating, but it’s also been freeing.
“I know that what I have isn’t due to anything other than my music and my fans,” he said. “It’s not about this huge promotion team that’s behind me. It’s just about my music and, for me, that’s really freeing, because it allows me to just create the kind of music that I want to make and, because of that, I think that people can hear the authenticity in my music.”
“Geronimo,” the first single from what will be his debut album with Triple Tigers, was released in January, and a second single, “Love Is Blind,” is getting pushed to country radio this week.
“‘Geronimo,’ I just thought, was a really great statement to start the year off with, especially because we had just partnered with a new label,” he said. “I thought that it was just a great statement to say, ‘Hey, I’m all in here. We’re coming out of the gate swinging.’ And ‘Geronimo’ is exactly that. It’s very up tempo.
“‘Love Is Blind,’ I remember playing it for the heads of Triple Tigers, just me and an acoustic guitar, and the label heads turned to each other, and they looked at me and said, ‘That’s going to be your first hit on the radio.’ That was just a very inspiring thing to hear from industry people that can tend to be hesitant in giving artists any kind of inclination that a tune is going to do big things before it’s released. That’s exactly why we decided to partner with Triple Tigers, because of their confidence.”
Those two singles and some of the other songs that will appear on his next album likely will be part of the setlist Friday at Packard Music Hall.
Many acts are hesitant to play unreleased music live in an era when everyone in the audience has a recording device in their pocket, and many of those shakily shot cellphone videos end up on social media or YouTube for the world to see. Munsick isn’t one of them.
“I think that if a tune is good, it’s just as good with you and a guitar and a band behind you than it is if you’re in the studio,” he said. “Those two versions might not be equal, they might be unique from each other, but at the end of the day, it’s country music and it’s all about the lyric and the way it makes you feel. I feel confident that the new stuff that we play is just as good as the recorded version.”
Munsick is putting the western back in country & western music. Growing up on his family’s ranch in Wyoming, the cowboy boots he wore weren’t a fashion statement; they were the work gear of a ranch hand. In addition to releasing three albums this decade, Munsick also wrote and starred in “White Buffalo: Voices of the West,” a documentary about Wyoming ranch life and the important contributions of Native Americans in that culture.
Whenever Munsick returns home to Wyoming, he’s re-immersed in that world. A billion streams doesn’t get him out of ranch chores.
“They do not care at all,” Munsick said. “Every time I go back home to Wyoming, I’m there for a few weeks or a few days, and I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to get back out on the road, where I can just hang out and chill all day and play music that sounds awesome and put it out there, instead of working my ass off for my dad or my brothers. But it also allows me to be a lot more grateful for the experiences that I have out here on the road and doing the things I love.”
If you go …
WHO: Ian Munsick and Kenny Whitmire
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday,
WHERE: Packard Music Hall,1703 Mahoning Ave NW, Warren
HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $43 to $80 and are available at the Packard box office and through Ticketmaster.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tribtoday.com ’
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