Ian Munsick, Zach Top and Hunter Flynn Go Acoustic for Dazzling Lexington Opera House Show

Three of country's stars of tomorrow - Ian Munsick, Zach Top and Hunter Flynn - teamed up for the first of a two-night run of shows at Kentucky's Lexington Opera House.

The acoustic concert kicked off with local product Hunter Flynn, who grew up 90 minutes south of Lexington in Somerset. The former insurance salesman pivoted to music in 2022 and has since earned praise as one of Appalachia’s most promising young artists, in addition to being named one of Holler's 24 New Artists for 2024.

It was easy to see why there’s such a buzz around Flynn, with the singer-songwriter fighting back tears as he remembered his late grandmother on ‘Granny’s Song’ and delved into his mental health struggles on the set-closing ‘Fucked Up Brain’.

The dark mood of these songs starkly contrasted with much of the night, but this didn’t prevent the crowd from resonating with the pain within. Good songs tend to do that, and - fortunately for Flynn (and us) - these seem like the only ones he knows how to make.

Zach Top (another of Holler's picks for 2024), flanked by guitarists Jimmy Meyer and Cheyenne Dalton, was next to the stage. His set transported the audience back to the ‘90s, with a performance that would’ve made George Strait and Alan Jackson proud.

The Washington-born singer flitted between unrecorded ditties like ‘Beer and Breakfast’, songs from his forthcoming album, Cold Beer & Country Music, including his current single, ‘Sounds Like The Radio’, and ballads from his self-titled bluegrass album. He delivered each track with an assurance and honky tonk charm few can match.

Top’s top highlight came during the heartfelt love song, ‘There’s The Sun’, a tale tailor-made track for a stripped-back setting like this. On it, he sings of million-dollar skyline views, Rocky Mountain highs and how neither of them compare to the beauty of his partner, in a romantic ode that embodies classic country lyricism at its finest.

Joined only by fiddler Tim Hayes, Ian Munsick put a bow on the evening with a rootsy set that resembled more of a foot-stomping, front porch pickin’ party than it did a show inside an ornate opera house. Nonetheless, the duo captivated the crowd from start to finish with countless venue-wide sing-a-longs, an impromptu “belt buckle shuffle” and a surprise cover of Fleetwood Mac's ‘Dreams’.

Also mixed in were fan-favorites like Munsick's Cody Johnson duet, ‘Long Live Cowgirls’, along with ‘Cowboy Killer’ and ‘White Buffalo’, the last of which takes its name from the animal Native Americans consider the most sacred living thing on earth.

It’s also the name of a new documentary the Wyoming native released in late January that details the long and often untold history of Indigenous cowboys, the trailblazing spirit of which goes hand-in-hand with Munsick’s down-home music inspired by the Wild West.

For more on Ian Munsick, see below: