When you’re the only one doing it, you get to set the standard.
Wyoming native Ian Munsick is back with his fourth studio album, The Mountain Goat, which dropped everywhere today. And if you’ve been following along with Ian’s career, you know that it’s the latest in a line of albums with animals in the name, along with Eagle Feather, White Buffalo, and Coyote Cry before it.
But as Ian told me, there’s another meaning behind The Mountain Goat:
“I had had the idea of ‘The Mountain Goat’ being the greatest of all time from the mountain.”
The GOAT of the Rocky Mountains.
Now, Ian admitted that might come across as arrogant, but there’s a good reason for him to declare himself the “GOAT” from the Rocky Mountains: He’s one of the only country artists from the area:
“Being from the part of the country that I’m from, there’s not a lot of other country artists from the Rocky Mountains. Like, I’m kind of the only one, so it’s easy to be the greatest of all time when you’re the only one.”
Being one of the only artists from his part of the country has allowed Ian to blaze a trail all his own and find a sound that’s uniquely his. It’s a sound that’s undeniably country and undeniably influenced by the west, but also mixes in elements of production like vocal layering that you often hear in pop music. In fact, Ian played a total of nine different instruments on his latest album, everything from guitar and banjo to harmonica and kazoo.
It’s a sound and a skill that’s served him well throughout his career – but according to Ian it’s one that was born out of necessity:
“On my first EP, I had a tune called ‘Horses Are Faster’ that I pretty much locked myself in my dad’s recording studio at home and … I just played all the instruments, had my dad play fiddle on it, and that was kind of it. I did all my own harmonies, I engineered everything.
It wasn’t intentional, it was that there was nobody else in Wyoming that I could hire to go play on my record. So I was like, man, I’m just going to do it all.”
It’s that signature sound that Ian brings to The Mountain Goat, from his viral hit “Love Is Blind” to the heartfelt “Made Me A Man,” a tribute to his lovely wife Caroline and their two children. Because while the sound of the album may be familiar to fans of Ian’s previous albums, there’s an undeniable growth in the lyrics thanks to some big changes in his personal life:
“I’m a girl dad now, which I wasn’t for my last albums, and that that brings out something completely different, of protection and being tender, but also very hard at the same time. That was kind of a cool emotion to play off of on this record.”
One of the great things about Ian’s music is that, while it’s undeniably steeped in western culture, with songs like “Winter in Wyoming” and “Earn Your Spurs,” he nonetheless manages to find a way to make it relatable even to those who have never stepped foot west of the Mississippi. And that’s something he attributes to the incredible “tribe” of songwriters that he’s managed to find since starting his country music journey.
The Mountain Goat features some of the greatest songwriters in country music in the credits, including names like Tucker Beathard, Jeremy Spillman, Wynn Varble and Phil O’Donnell who have written massive hits for some of Nashville’s biggest names. And Ian credits working with these songwriters who may not understand western culture with helping him bring his ideas to life in a way that’s more relatable to a broader audience:
“There’s a tune on this record called, ‘Cutthroat World’. And the play on it is that a cutthroat is a type of trout, but a lot of people don’t know that. So, it’s a cutthroat world out here, out in the river, but it’s also a cutthroat world out there, just out in the world, right?
So, these guys that don’t know what a cutthroat is in the writing room and I have to explain it, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really great.’
How do we educate the audience that might not know that? And even if they still don’t understand the play on words, how do we still allow that to be a good song? Right. So they definitely help me broaden it to to the larger country audience that probably I would not have reached without them.”
The result is an album that showcases Ian’s growth as a husband, a father and an artist while staying true to his western roots, yet also pushing boundaries in a way that puts him in a class uniquely his own.
Ian has quickly become a fan-favorite for his western charm and his live shows that are full of viral moments, but it’s The Mountain Goat that really brings all that together in what comes across to longtime fans as a career-defining album:
“Honestly, this is my favorite album that I’ve made, and I know that everybody always always wants to promote that for their new album, but man, this one is.
I feel like I’ve finally been able to achieve the weaving of the tradition of country music with the production feeling, like you are in the old west but also the new west all cohesively.
That has always been my goal, is to make people feel like they’re in the west but also timeless. And that’s what all the greatest albums are: They’re timeless.
And, that’s what I think, hopefully, people will hear in in this album.”
That’s why he’s The Mountain GOAT.
