Ian Munsick Talks New Album 'White Buffalo': 'This Is the Most Me My Music Has Ever Been' (Exclusive)

"I always try to take my audience to Wyoming, tipping my hat to the Native American culture that had a huge influence on where I grew up," he tells PEOPLE exclusively

Ian Munsick wants to put the Rocky Mountains on country music's map.

The musician hails from Wyoming, and with his latest album White Buffalo, he's bringing classic Western influences back to center stage.

"In Native American culture, the white buffalo is an omen for good things, a rebirth, and that's exactly what this album is," Munsick, 29, exclusively tells PEOPLE. "There's a lot of positivity in my music. So, I thought that it was the perfect name for the album. I always try to take my audience to Wyoming, tipping my hat to the Native American culture that had a huge influence on where I grew up."

Munsick's debut album, Coyote Cry, also paid homage to his roots, and the musical journey Munsick began with that record is one he now feels he has the freedom to expand upon.

"Coyote Cry was an intro to the spectrum of country music that I can make and that I love, and White Buffalo is now under that microscope, really harping on personal experiences that I've had and my love for the West: the people, the culture, the land," he says. "This is the most me that my music has ever been, so I'm very proud of it."

Munsick has been a musician his entire life — an identity he inherited from his father and saw cultivated by his older siblings.

"My dad is a musician and my two older brothers are also musicians, and they still play true country and western music influenced heavily by their ranch lifestyle," he explains.

The very first time Munsick played on stage with his older brothers and his dad, he was 9 years old. From that moment on, he says he knew he wanted to make music for the rest of his life. He also maintains a sense of humor about it.

"Being the youngest, I really didn't have a choice," he jokes. "That was the kind of music that I heard and the lifestyle that I lived."

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Within the 18-tracks of White Buffalo, Munsick even hopes to dispel some common misconceptions about the West — namely, that it's still wild: "Native Americans and cowboys are not still enemies," he says. "This isn't the 1800s anymore. These people live hand in hand with each other. They live in the same areas. They influence each other."

Munsick himself has been enmeshed in the culture for nearly as long as he can remember.

"I went to school with Native Americans. I grew up playing sports with them, being friends with them. There's a lot of Native American influences in how I dress, the artwork that I have, my music and my brand in general because there's tons of commonalities," he says.

The name of Munsick's tour (after one of his hit songs with fellow country singer Cody Johnson) also reflects his cowboy-culture side.

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It's called "Long Live Cowgirls," serving as a nod to the women in Munsick's life who have inspired him.

"My mom, she was the first cowgirl that I ever knew. She raised my two older brothers and arguably my dad on the ranch. She took care of everything: inside the house, outside the house. She became the gardener, a horseman, a cowgirl," Munsick says. "She drives the tractor, she does everything around the ranch. And I think the biggest difference between cowboys and cowgirls is that cowgirls can do everything that cowboys can, but they do it with grace. Country music needed a tribute to the cowgirls because they're the most badass people on earth."

Nowadays, Munsick has another cowgirl in his life, too: his wife, Caroline, with whom he shares son Crawford.

Fatherhood, as it turns out, poses an entirely different frontier.

"Oh man, it's taught me a lot," Munsick says. "Honestly, it's taught me a whole new kind of love. You think you know what love is for a woman, but then finding love for a child — it's not even in the same category."

Munsick captured his feelings about fatherhood and all of the lessons he's learned from Crawford in one of the tracks off the new album, called "Little Man."

"This is actually a lyric in the tune, but fatherhood is teaching me how to be the man I want to be. Teaching him is actually making me a better human being, and it's taught me that I can learn a lot from somebody who has only been on earth for three years," Munsick says with a laugh.

Crawford is already quite the music critic, too.

"My wife always gets the first listen, so I always know if it's good or bad from her," Munsick explains of his new music. "And then Crawford is the ultimate judge. There's tunes that I've put out where he'll be in the seat and be like, 'Too loud, too loud. I don't like that.' And then there are other ones where he'll just want to listen again and again and again and again."

Crawford is perhaps the first fan of White Buffalo, out now, and Munsick ultimately hopes his music serves as a gateway to the part of the country he proudly hails from, so that he can bring "the west to the rest."

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"The mountains need to be put on the map. There are so many stories and people and cultures in that region that don't have a voice in current country music, even though they have some of the most unique stories to tell," he says. "So, I hope that the country music audience feels that in my music, and it helps shed a light on where I'm from."

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