Who is Skip Ewing? The Story Behind His Journey to Country Music
Who is Skip Ewing? The singer-songwriter joined us to chat about his journey to country music. Get to know the rising star here…
Quick Facts:
Full Name – Donald Ralph “Skip” Ewing
Birthdate – March 6th
Hometown – Redlands, California
Current City – Dubois, Wyoming
Musical Influences – James Taylor, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson
Current Single – “Windmill” // as of date of article: 4/17/2024
The Beginning:
Today’s spotlight shines on an artist who has lived many lifetimes. Skip Ewing is an award-winning singer-songwriter, who has boasted multiple number ones as a songwriter. He decided to step away from the music industry, only to find himself back in it currently. We chatted with the artist about his incredible and windy path, new music, and everything in between.
“I don’t remember a time where I didn’t play guitar. I was told I asked for a guitar when I was like four,” began the California native. “I just played it incessantly, I just loved it. The joke was that I could play guitar before I could read.” At an early age, Ewing was engulfed in music. “There was so many different musical influences like classical and country. […] Country influences would have been like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and then there were people like James Taylor, and I was totally into The Police, and Sting, and The Beatles.”
Throughout his upbringing, the singer-songwriter would craft music and play different instruments during every waking moment. “I couldn’t really get very many guitar lessons, so I would stay up late at night and I would put a foam curler under my strings, all the way up the saddle of my guitar, so I could play and I wouldn’t get caught. I would just make stuff up,” he shared. Adding,“I started playing five-string mandolin, and I played bass, and piano. I just played everything that I possibly could. I sang in choir, I did musical theatre, and I didn’t know I would be a country music artist [at the time].”
While the singer did not necessarily dream of a career in country music, he always yearned to continue to express himself through music. “I just wanted to express myself artistically in the most authentic way I could,” shared the artist, who found himself landing in Nashville shortly upon graduating high school.
The Turning Point:
Once he was offered a job in Nashville, Tennessee, Ewing took it and there was no turning back. “I was an ensemble singer there. Some people heard some songs I was working on and they liked it, and I got signed to publishing deal.” Shortly thereafter he landed cuts and hits for artists like George Jones, Randy Travis, and Trisha Yearwood.
He also landed himself a record deal. Despite the fact that Ewing was seemingly “living the dream,” he was losing touch with the self-expression that he always loved in music. “What happened was that the songs I wanted to record as an artist, I was told were terrible. Some of the songs I wanted to record were number one hits. […] I tried to make people happy, and maybe I tried to make the wrong people happy, but my heart wasn’t happy. I kept trying to please everyone else, but it got to a place where it felt like my artistic soul was eroding a bit.”
He decided to leave it all behind and sell everything in favor of studying horsemanship, something he had begun to love. “On my own spiritual journey, I had fallen in love with horses. The more I worked with horses, the more I learned about myself, and the more I learned about myself, the more I realized I could be a better human if I studied that,” he shared. Adding,“The more that went along, the more powerful the journey became. I met my wife in Texas at a clinic down there, and that just led itself all the way up to us moving to Wyoming. […] We moved there on faith and we just said let’s be here because it’s gorgeous, and I feel like I’m planting my roots in the right kind of soil.”
Eventually, while his wife was away working as a videographer and photographer, Ewing began to pick up the guitar again. “She came home after I had written a few songs, and I played them for her. She said, ‘honey, I think the journeys have to come together. I think you’re in a place, where the world needs to hear what you are doing.’”
Ewing and his wife took another leap of faith, and the singer-songwriter began to write and release music again.
Today:
Flash forward to today, Ewing is as relevant today as he was many years ago. Still crafting songs that speak to his artistry, the singer is at his absolute best. “It was like being a brand new artist. What I did was I wrote a few songs, and then somehow I just knew in my heart who should produce it with me. It was someone I hadn’t done anything with for over twenty years. The very first song I ever played guitar on for someone else, that I wrote was a song for, was Randy Travis called “If I Didn’t Have You,” the number one single from his greatest hits album. I went to play guitar in the studio and the proper, his name was Kyle Lehning, and his presence in the studio struck me and I never forgot it.”
With a Christmas record and one album, Wyoming already under his belt, Ewing is about to release another new record called, Road To California. Recently, the singer released a song off the project called, “Windmill,” which truly speaks to the poetic nature of his songwriting.
“That song really describes the singer who is the windmill, who speaks to his own efforts of being still deeply in love with someone that they lost, and he experiences that person as the wind. A windmill doesn’t really have a choice, it spins towards the wind, if there’s wind, it spins. And in its own way the power of love that exists in its own way takes a small breath of a memory or anything like that to just spin us around and have us right back in it,” he shared.
While we await Ewing’s next studio album, fans can checkout “Windmill,” as well as, the songwriter’s cut on Ernest’s new duet with Lainey Wilson called “Would If I Could.” To keep up with the singer and to catch him on the road, head to his website here.
Connect:
Fans can join our Weekly Round-Up e-newsletter here, for the latest in country music and more news and announcements about future Skip Ewing releases.
To keep up with Skip Ewing, follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Skip Ewing’s music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.
