Skip Ewing

Skip Ewing has penned material for numerous leading figures in country music while also enjoying his own recording career, which produced significant successes across the 1980s and 1990s. Gifted at creating narratives around familiar figures facing ordinary emotional situations, he matched recognizable stories in pieces such as "The Gospel According to Luke," "Your Memory Wins Again," and "The Coast of Colorado" to sharp, resonant melodies. Those tracks formed part of his output for MCA on 1988's The Coast of Colorado and 1989's The Will to Love. Spiritual themes surfaced on 1997's Until I Found You for Word Records, and after founding his own Write! Records, he issued projects including 2020's Wyoming.

Born Donald Ralph Ewing in Redlands, California, he relocated repeatedly during childhood because of his family's military ties. Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell introduced him to country music, prompting him to take up guitar while still young; songwriting began in his teens, and he later added banjo for appearances at bluegrass festivals. A performing role in a country revue at Busch Gardens in Virginia led him, at age 19, to a comparable position at Nashville's Opryland. Demo and commercial vocal work followed, and persistent songwriting efforts secured a staff position at Acuff-Rose. Early compositions reached George Jones, George Strait, Charley Pride, and others. A 1987 MCA contract produced the breakthrough album The Coast of Colorado the next year, delivering two Top Ten singles in "I Don't Have Far to Fall" and the number three "Burnin' a Hole in My Heart," along with more modest chart entries in "Your Memory Wins Again" and the title track.

1989's The Will to Love yielded another Top Five hit with "It's You Again" and a Top Ten placement for "The Gospel According to Luke." Ewing released two albums in 1990: the original set A Healin' Fire and his debut holiday collection, Following Yonder Star. MCA deemed A Healin' Fire insufficiently commercial, so 1991's Naturally appeared under a new Capitol Nashville agreement, while MCA issued a Greatest Hits compilation that year. The Liberty imprint handled 1993's Homegrown Love before an extended recording absence. Songwriting became his main focus and brought substantial success; by the end of the 1990s his material had been cut by Clint Black, Randy Travis, Collin Raye, Lorrie Morgan, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Suzy Bogguss, Diamond Rio, and many more, with occasional session guitar contributions as well. The recording break ended with the spiritual album Until I Found You on Word Records.

Songwriting again took precedence until 2008, when he started Write! Records to issue music independently. That year the label released two projects: the children's album Indian Elephant Tea, recorded with the Big Kidz Band and issued jointly with Rounder Records, plus The Hits, Vol. 1 containing new versions of signature songs. Fresh compositions appeared on 2020's Wyoming, and the seven-song holiday EP Christmas reached fans in 2021. Ewing also leads an annual songwriting retreat in Dubois, Wyoming. In 2023 Apple Music presented his demo of "I Would If I Could," co-written with Dean Dillon, on the Lost & Found Radio series spotlighting notable country songwriters.