Based in Nashville but raised in the mountains of of Wyoming, Ian Munsick is bringing something fresh yet historically timeless to Country music in 2023. His sophomore album, ‘White Buffalo’ is steeped in wisdom and spirituality. The melodies, the charm, the nuance, the emotional heft and the wistful, cinematic stories that make up this album are all underpinned by a modern sensibility and the kind of production values that you’d be expecting from an artist much further into their career. It’s that good.
Growing up in Sheridan, Wyoming, to a musical family that listened and played everything from the Beatles to Bluegrass, there wasn’t much else for Munsick to do.’Wyoming is the least populated state in America,’ Munsick told the medium.com last year, ‘You’ve got to create your own entertainment.’ After establishing himself as an independent artist Munsick signed a deal with Warner Music Nashville in 2020 releasing his debut album, ‘Coyote Cry’ a year later. It was the genre-bursting collaboration with Ryan Charles, ‘Cowboy Killer’ that brought him to our attention in 2022 but it’s going to be this album, ‘White Buffalo’ that wins hearts and minds all over the world in the next year or two.
The songs on ‘White Buffalo’ are, similar to the plains, mountains and landscapes of Munsick’s home state of Wyoming, painted in large, dramatic brush strokes. Many of the songs reflect a kind of spirituality and a love for nature that modern society has lost. There’s a big dollop of reflection from Munsick too: reflecting on the changes that have occurred in his own life over the past three years as he has become a husband and father, oh, and there’s a decent amount of humour and good, old fashioned fun as well. Cleverly, Munsick plays with the listener in terms of the aural aspect of this album. There are fiddles everywhere, banjo, guitar and plaintive steel but the cadence of the melodies and modern structure of the many of the songs leave you with the feeling that you are listening to something very modern sounding. It’s not a million miles away from what artists like Morgan Wallen are doing right now, yet it’s something timeless too, something spiritual and something rooted in the very heritage and origins of America itself.
Tracks like ‘River Run’, which is a story of love as old as time itself, are painted with deep, spiritual meanings as Munsick sings about the ‘rancher’s son and the river’s daughter’ on a song so cinematic in nature that you can see what the video should look like! ‘Bluegrass’ is driven by an almost lilting Irish melody whilst ‘Horses and Weed’, a reflective campfire song about the ‘two things that get me where I want to go,’ brings a real arms-round-shoulders, Kumbaya moment and would be perfect for intimate performances but it is on the title track itself and album closer, ‘Indian Paintbrush’ that the real spiritual heart of ‘White Buffalo’ can be found.
The title track, an atmospheric, Western plains-leaning song relies on the strength of Munsick’s vocals and the power of the lyrics alone to deliver its portentous and potent message. The white buffalo was a sacred animal for the indigenous population of America, a sighting of one was believed to mean that you had found ‘your one’ and that better times were ahead. There’s obviously direct comparison with Munsick’s life here, as he now has a wife and child in his life. Cinematic lyrics and an almost native American melody in the post-chorus section of the song give ‘White Buffalo’ a really strong geographical and emotional grounding. ‘Indian Paintbrush’, meanwhile, is all pan pipes and acoustic guitars as Munsick sings about nature, eagles and the creeping intrusion of progress and development on the plains and the prairies. Wistful, heartfelt lyrics and a catchy but mournful melody feature here as Munsick watches ‘the sun sinking down on what’s left of the Western front.’ The state flower of Wyoming is used a metaphor for the loss of innocence and spirituality in an impactful way on the last track of this powerful album.
Elsewhere on ‘White Buffalo’ you’ll find Munsick being thankful for where his life is now. ‘More Than Me’ touches on both earthly love and love of a more spiritual kind. It’s an acoustic ballad with some lovely guitar flourishes and an insanely catchy melody on the chorus. It’s this album’s ‘shower song’. The song that lives with you after the album is done. The melody that pops into your head in the shower, causing you to holler out ‘….that’s why I love her,’ at the top of your lungs! ‘Little Man’, meanwhile, is a tribute to Munsick’s son. ‘You’re looking more like me every single day,’ he sings on a song about learning from your children and keeping that innocent perspective that a child has on the world.
The relationship between fathers and sons is also dealt with on the collaboration with Vince Gill, ‘Field of Dreams’. This is a tasteful, relatable tale of rural folks, farmers and blue collar workers in which Gill provides a typically bluesy yet restrained solo set delightfully against a plaintive fiddle. Similarly, ‘Ranch Hand’ carries an emotional punch with its mournful fiddles and melodic chorus as Munsick sings about how, ‘If you really want to know a man, his hands will tell the truth,’ on a song that seems destined to appear on ‘Yellowstone’ at some point in the future!
Alongside the symbolism and the emotional heft of ‘White Buffalo’ there’s also a huge amount of uptempo fun. ‘From the Horses Mouth’ kicks the album off with a song that sits somewhere between Blake Shelton’s ‘God’s Country’ and early Big ‘n’ Rich in terms of style and tone. Fiddles, banjos, handclaps and guitars abound on this toe-tappingly refreshing song that somehow feels incredibly modern and yet timelessly traditional too. Elsewhere, ‘Neon Brightside’ brings the 90s Country vibes mixed with a good amount of Texan honky tonk on a song that sounds part Midland, part Jon Pardi whilst ‘Blazin” finds Munsick at his most commercial on an anthemic love song with a real Morgan Wallen structure and cadence to it. ‘Dig’, meanwhile, channels a kind of HARDY-esque, Rock meets Country vibe on a ballad in which the chorus literally soars as Munsick sings about trust and the arena all sing along with their phone lights in the air!
Perhaps the two most entertaining songs on ‘White Buffalo’ are ‘Barn Burner’ and ”Cowshit in the Morning’. On both of these songs we get a real feel for Munsick’s sense of humour. On the former, he finds his girl ‘birthday suiting with a dude in his boots and spurs’ and her barn ‘mysteriously’ burns down a day or two later! Alabama-style harmonies abound here on a song with perhaps the most explosive chorus on the album and a fantastic end of song, extended outro hoe-down whilst ‘Cowshit in the Morning’ echoes those early Big ‘n’ Rich vibes again on a song about a city girl who can’t cope with the rural life. There’s an equal mix of vitriol and humour in this song as we learn about trust-fund entitlement. Munsick ultimately decides, ‘I’d rather smell cowshit in the morning than put up with her bullshit every night’.
Similar to the sacred animal itself, ‘White Buffalo’ is a rare and precious find. Spiritual in places, laugh-out-loud fun in others – it’s an album full of vivd brush strokes, drama and melody. Ian Munsick has taken the traditional Country template that pays homage to the styles and stories of the greats of the past and built his own sound on top so that the album sounds equal parts rooted in the origins of Country music and yet refreshingly new at the same time. His lyrics are Tarrantino-esque in terms of their cinematic ability to transport you right into the heart of the stories he is telling, be they sacred stories from times past or the stories of the heart. That ability is both a rare and precious thing in Country music and it needs to be protected and nurtured. Munsick is Country music’s ‘White Buffalo’, indeed. Just look at the cover of the album. It’s a bold statement but one without hubris – this album is the perfect mix of classic and contemporary and something to be both celebrated and cherished.
Track list: 1. From the Horses Mouth 2. Arrowhead 3. River Run 4. Ranch Hand 5. Neon Brightside 6. Long Live Cowgirls 7. Barn Burner 8. Dig 9. More Than Me 10. Little Man 11. White Buffalo 12. Bluegrass 13. Cowshit in the Morning 14. Field of Dreams 15. Blazin 16. Missin Her Play 17. Horses and Weed 18. Indian Paintbrush Record Label: Warner Music Nashville Release Date: April 7th Buy ‘White Buffalo’ now
