Skip Ewing on Wyoming, Horses and His New Album ‘Dragonfly’

It’s quite a distance from Nashville to the Wind River Valley in northwestern Wyoming, and Skip Ewing feels strong connections to both places—but in different ways.

On one hand, he has long been established as a musician and songwriter on Music Row, and that’s where he can tap into the creative energy he needs to make great music. More personally, he and his wife, Linda, love living in their cozy cabin surrounded by dogs and horses, stunning landscapes and an incredible assortment of wildlife.

From their coveted spot, they can regularly gaze in wonder at magnificent features that many others pay big money and travel long distances to experience.

“It’s almost like I breathe differently when I'm here,” Ewing says. “There’s a lake I can throw a rock at from my deck, and when I look to my left I see the same thing you see when you go to Yellowstone. I look up at a glacier, and I see bighorn sheep on my driveway. There are antelope and elk here, as well as deer and bear and cougar and everything else.”

a man carrying an elk shed antler on his shoulder stares off into a scenic distance

Quick Look

Skip Ewing’s new album, Dragonfly, is out Sept. 18.
The longtime Nashville songwriter now lives near Dubois, Wyoming.
Horses, ranch life and the outdoors helped shape both his outlook and his return to recording.

Wyoming Meets Nashville on ‘Dragonfly’

Though he’s sometimes reluctant to leave such an idyllic place, Ewing recently spent time in Nashville for a very good reason—to work on Dragonfly, his new 10-track album released today.

He’s in high spirits about the new music he made with help from some of the country music community's top talents, and he hopes it will help him reach a wider audience than ever before.

“I’m able to finally start to do what I wanted to do and wasn’t given the chance to do,” Ewing says, “and that feels amazing.”

A musician since he was a kid in California, Ewing quickly hit a hot streak as a country artist in the late 1980s before reaching tremendous success as a songwriter. Not happy with some of the changes in musical trends, he broke away physically from Music City and found spiritual solace in a different daily lifestyle built around horses.

Skip Ewing sits in a SxS ATV with a white dog

He eventually settled near the small town of Dubois, Wyoming, in 2018, where horsemanship, ranch work and the surrounding landscape became an increasingly important part of his life.

That influence can be heard on Dragonfly, including the lead-off track, “Me & God and a Fishing Pole,” which gives thanks to the kind of solitude in an outdoor setting that can often bring clarity.

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Skip Ewing’s Early Country Music Success

Ewing co-produced Dragonfly with Bryan Sutton and F. Reid Shippen, who have worked with major artists such as Blake Shelton, Morgan Wallen, Tim McGraw and Eric Church, among many others.

Ewing hopes their skills will help him connect with more listeners than he did with his more organic-sounding recent albums, Wyoming and Road to California. The idea, he says, is to have “more of a commercial approach without compromising what I see as lyrical integrity and musicality and who I am.”

Ewing’s career hit the ground running nearly 40 years ago with the upbeat “Burnin’ a Hole in My Heart,” which reached No. 3 on the country charts, helped along by performances on popular TV shows such as Nashville Now and Austin City Limits. He had several other hits, including “It’s You Again.”

Recounting his career trajectory, he tells a heartbreaking story about a top producer dismissing a romantic and sentimental ballad of his, “Love, Me.” Ewing then had to watch from the sidelines as Collin Raye recorded the song and turned it into a career-defining No. 1 hit.

Skip Ewing sits on a rock while fishing in a pretty stream

Career Highlights

“Burnin’ a Hole in My Heart” reached No. 3 on the country charts.
“It’s You Again” became another Top 5 hit.
Ewing later earned major success as a songwriter for artists including George Strait, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Shania Twain.
He earned a CMA Triple Play Award for writing three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period.

From Recording Artist to Hit Songwriter

Increasingly, Ewing says, he felt pressure to be something he was not, and he became better known as a songwriter behind the scenes rather than a recording artist and onstage performer.

He scored big in that different role, however, even earning a CMA Triple Play Award, which goes to songwriters with three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period. Over the years, his songs have been recorded by such superstars as George Strait, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Shania Twain.

More recently, ERNEST and Lainey Wilson teamed up for a hit version of “Would If I Could”" which Ewing co-wrote with Dean Dillon three decades ago.

Ewing says the new attention that came his way, along with favorable responses to his last two albums, gave him a boost to try to regain some musical footing on his own—but more on his own terms this time around.

a man holds his horse's reigns as the animal drinks

What Horses Taught Skip Ewing

Outside of music, Ewing finds inspiration in the quieter conditions and majestic natural beauty of Wyoming, and also in the rustic and rural lifestyle that comes with working with horses.

He first encountered equestrian customs and traditions when he was a child visiting his uncle’s thoroughbred ranch in Southern California. It was decades later when he really got to know horses, he says, and in the process he has learned a lot about himself.

“The horses didn’t care if I knew Kenny Chesney or Lainey Wilson. They didn’t care what songs I wrote or even what my name was,” Ewing says. “What is important to them is how it feels to be around us. They became my teachers way more than I ever was able to teach them how to be with humans. They helped me understand myself and to be better with all my relationships, including the one with myself.”

For a songwriter who spent years surrounded by an industry built on charts, hits and recognizable names, that indifference may have been exactly what he needed.

And now, with Dragonfly, the two sides of Ewing’s life—Nashville songwriter and Wyoming horseman—have come back together.