Ian Munsick has always taken pride in his performance. Ever since he was a kid performing with his musician father and two older brothers at rodeos in his native Wyoming, the singer-songwriter has had a flair for entertaining.

However, at a show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado last year, Munsick received one of the greatest honors not just in his music career, but his entire life.

During the sold-out set’s encore, Munsick was formally adopted into the Crow Tribe, also known as the Apsáalooke. The tribe’s reservation is in Montana near the Wyoming border town where the singer-songwriter grew up. Two of his Native friends and tribe members surprised him with three gifts when they walked on stage; including a blanket and an eagle feather that he proudly wears in his cowboy hat.

“When they gave it to me, it was a symbol of adoption and giving me the gift of being a part of their culture, and it’s not one that they allow very often,” he says of that powerful moment.

That initiation moved Munsick to his core. For him, receiving the eagle feather represented honor, strength, and wisdom. Thinking about the power of that moment set him on a course to write a new album fully inspired by the eagle feather, which in turn became its title. The power of that moment, he says, was creative writing ammunition due to the heaviness of the honor.

“What a great image to put with love.” he says. "When you give your heart, it's forever. You know there's no giving it back, and there's a sacredness that goes with it...that’s the way that love ought to be”

Munsick proudly proclaimed that he wanted to bring the sounds of the rural American West that he grew up with to the forefront of country music. He did exactly that on 2023’s acclaimed White Buffalo, and takes it a step further on Eagle Feather. Munsick jokes that he did this to protect the purity of the West from outside forces that would take away from what makes it so special.

Thus, the way he sees it, Eagle Feather is the culmination of a three-part thematic trilogy where he uses animals as inspirational spirits, which started with Coyote Cry, his debut album.

When he got to work on Eagle Feather, Munsick knew that for the first time in his career, he wanted to make an album with the same core creatives. Previously, he’d bounce around collaborating with different producers, engineers, and writers. Here, he wanted a cohesive body of work that had linear themes that aligned with his vision. Having that firm, consistent foundation enabled him to do exactly that.

The same DIY spirit that Munsick used to write, create, and record his first two albums remains present on Eagle Feather. Though he’s based in Nashville, Munsick spent most of his time recording at a ranch he recently purchased in Wyoming. Having made his mark in Music City, a return to the Cowboy State was always something that was in the cards for the singer-songwriter. There was an unspoken, telepathic connection with the land, and in the process, to a higher power.

“Being away from Wyoming for these last two albums was great because my heart was still in Wyoming,” he explains. “Now being able to say that I've achieved what I've come for, it's up to me to be an authentic representative of the West in an industry that doesn't have a lot of Westerners in it.”

Liberated by being home, it brought out the best in Munsick’s songwriting. Serving as the artist, the producer, the engineer, and the creative director (with valuable assists from engineers, co-producers, and co-writers), Munsick put together a 20-song collection that is a tremendous leap forward.

Unlike White Buffalo, where he felt it was a collection of individual songs, Munsick sees Eagle Feather as a cohesive body of work where each of the songs are intertwined.

Some of the album’s tracks are finished versions of material that Munsick worked on as long as four years ago. On others, such as the stand-out title track, Munsick had a little help from his friends. In this case, that was rising singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr, whose work Munsick is a big fan of. Getting together to write on a late afternoon in Nashville, Munsick shared with him the honor of being adopted into the Crow tribe. As he listened, Wilson started to play his gut string in his unique tuning. From that, Wilson said, “Gave you my heart like eagle feather,” and just like that, a song was formed.

That song set forward the pillars upon which the album’s meaning and message were based: honor, love, and authenticity, which in turn, is a code of how to live.

For a good portion of 2024, Munsick was on the road with another rising Wilson: Lainey. Touring with the arena-filling star on her Country’s Cool Again tour was illuminating for him. Playing in front of some of the largest and most enthusiastic crowds of his career with his longtime friend (who bonded over their outsider, rural backgrounds) gave Munsick the affirmation that his songs were connecting with fans on a visceral level. While on the road, he cooked up the deeply personal and delicately poignant “Feather In My Hat.” Munsick knew that if Wilson lent her vocals, it would give it another layer of emotional depth.

“I knew that she would have a soft spot (for it) because she wears a feather in her hat too,” he says. “We were just at the same point of life with love, her for Duck and me for my wife, that it was the perfect song for us to sing together.”

After a show at New York City’s legendary Radio City Music Hall, Munsick asked Wilson if she’d contribute her vocals. The answer was a resounding yes. “She was like, ‘I love this song. I want to be on it. This is a hit. How do we make this hit?’”

On tour, that could have been challenging. Yet, Munsick, always resourceful, had Wilson hop on his bus, took out his recording rig, and tracked her vocals on his bus.

Like all great songwriters, Munsick was able to draw from personal experiences and stories to show how life’s little moments can be its most impactful. One example of this can be found on “Wolf Creek Road,” a powerful moment where Munsick reflects on a true story after a night out at the rodeo when he was a teenager, when he had a close call and rolled his car. His father, none too pleased, drove him back to that area to show him a wooden cross on the side of the road and didn’t say a word. For Munsick, the silence was deafening and said everything. That “what might have been if you weren’t careful” moment is somberly reflected throughout the song’s gut-wrenching four minutes.

“Drink Around,” another standout track, is unlike any other on the album. The song is only one of two on the project that Munsick didn’t write himself. Teaming with outside writers isn’t usually Munsick’s style, but when he heard the Wyatt McCubbin, Travis Wood, Jared Kiem-penned track, it was instantly stuck in his head. To him, the relatable nature of the song’s lyrics reminds him of the first time he met his wife at a bar, and now, years later, they’re happily married with a child. “Man, you just can't hide the truth when you start to drink around someone you have feelings for,” Munsick says.

The heaviness of the album culminates in its last track, “The Gate.” The track features three generations of Munsicks, with his father and young son participating in the intro and outro. Its symbolism of leaving the world, or in this case, the gate, just as good as you found it, resonates heavily.

Armed with these 20 songs, Ian Munsick is ready to show the rest of the country music world what he is made of. With a knack for entertaining long in his blood, Munsick says he has to ensure that when a show is finished, fans walk away thinking that it was one of the best concerts they’ve attended. In turn, that dedication and ability clearly show why he’s not just on the rise, but about to bring country music to a new level.

“I want people to know that there is a whole culture in country music that doesn't have a voice, and it's the culture of the West,” he says of his ambitions for Eagle Feather. “When you look at a map and see the top 50 artists right now in country music, it's from Texas to Virginia. No place epitomizes what country music is, or even broader, what country is, like the West, and that's exactly what I set out to capture with this album.”