“What I do now is different than what I did in the past,” Skip Ewing says. “It’s almost like being a new artist. It doesn’t mean it’s separate from it – it’s like a river, it’s a journey.”
Having already put his distinguishing brand on country music, award-winning singer and songwriter Skip Ewing now begins a new phase of what has already proven a landmark career with his eagerly awaited new EP, Dragonfly, arriving in 2026 on his own Write! Records label via Nashville’s Vere Music. Produced by Ewing with his longtime friends and collaborators, 5x GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Toby Keith) and 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning guitar legend Bryan Sutton (Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Eric Church), the five-track EP sees the Wyoming-based artist bringing his extraordinary life experiences and philosophical temperament to bear on such essential new songs as “I Want It All,” the mischievous “Stop Talking,” and “Me & God (And a Fishing Pole),” the latter of which expertly exemplifies his profoundly soulful bond with the natural world. From its considered sonic development to its steadfast focus on expressing himself for a new generation, Dragonfly marks a significant creative renaissance for Skip Ewing – an idea epitomized by the EP’s title, customarily a winged symbol for agility, strength, and self-realization across Native American and other cultures.
“I was on my hike recently and a dragonfly came and flew next to me for a good bit,” Ewing says. “That would simply be cool. Except…it has already snowed twice, and the temp drops should have kept any dragonflies – which are already rare here – from becoming adults.
“Traditionally, dragonflies represent spiritual growth, metamorphosis, maturity, adaptation and renewal, light and clarity, joy and happiness. It dawned on me that this project and my renewed efforts to be the artist I have always wanted to be were absolutely all of those things.”
A natural born storyteller, Skip Ewing’s signature gift for vivid songcraft and true-to-life human connection made him a chart-topping star at the turn of the 1990s with six top 20 hits including such country classics as the top 3 “Burnin’ a Hole in My Heart” and the top 5 “It’s You Again.” Along with his own solo successes, Ewing proved one of Nashville’s most in-demand songwriters, earning him countless honors and accolades including a prestigious CMA Triple Play Award (presented to songwriters who pen three #1 songs within a 12-month period) and BMI Songwriter of the Year Award as well as multiple CMA, ACM, BMI, and NSAI Awards and GRAMMY® Award and Songwriter Hall of Fame nominations for songs recorded by such country superstars as Keith Urban, George Strait, Zac Brown Band, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, and Shania Twain, to name only a few.
“I’ve been told that hundreds of millions of people have heard songs that I’ve written,” Ewing says. “Somebody will come up to me at a concert and say, I know you hear this all the time, but you wrote my favorite song. And I will say, but I haven’t heard that from you. If we’ve made that connection, what a magical thing that is.”
Ewing’s ceaseless quest for personal and spiritual growth eventually saw him step away from the bright lights of Nashville for the wide-open spaces of Wyoming, where he spent more than a decade devoting himself to his love of nature and horsemanship.
“I started coming here to Wyoming every year, sometimes for weeks at a time, because it was such a beautiful place for creativity,” Ewing says. “I loved writing here, songwriting and horseback riding. But the more I did that, the more I realized how little I really knew about horses and horsemanship. When I started digging into that relationship, I started learning so much about me. And so, in 2014 I sold my house. I sold everything, actually – I just kept my instruments and went to study horsemanship. And that's what I did, until we moved here to Dubois in 2018.”
Realigning with the west empowered Ewing to challenge himself as both a human and as an artist, giving him much-needed room to grow and flourish in terms of his relationships as well as with the people for whom he had been writing songs. As his spirit rejuvenated, Ewing eventually picked up his guitar and once again began creating country music that chronicled the tale of his ongoing human journey, captured on such well-received albums as 2020’s Wyoming, 2021’s Christmas, and 2024’s Road to California, all of which continued to garner him critical and popular acclaim. As he toured with his Horsepower 307 backing band, Ewing regularly heard from fans who told him how much his music mattered in their lives. Meanwhile, “Would If I Could” – co-written by Ewing with fellow songwriting giant Dean Dillon – proved a 2025 country radio smash for ERNEST and Lainey Wilson. Having focused more on writing intensely introspective songs in recent years, the veteran craftsman decided the time was right to try his hand at something more inclusive, songs which would fit right in at the vanguard of contemporary country music. A proper philomath with a lifelong passion for learning as much as he can about whatever subject he sets his mind towards, Ewing made a careful study of the genre’s evolution in recent years, exploring the changes and consistencies that have seen country music grow as a cultural force even greater than when he was among the top artists leading the charge.
“I listened to everything I could find that was coming out of Nashville,” Ewing says, “thinking, what are the elements that are motivating writers and listeners now? I wanted to explore ways to write, sing, play, and put all of the pieces together in a way that celebrates contemporary Country radio, honors and elevates elements of our traditional Country roots, and maintains the musical and lyrical integrity that continues to resonate with me.”
To help him realize his vision, Ewing reached out to two massively gifted friends – renowned engineer F. Reid Shippen and acoustic guitar giant Bryan Sutton. With his core collaborators in place, Ewing assembled a truly spectacular selection of Nashville all-stars, including Sutton on acoustic guitar, electric guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield (Luke Combs, Luke Bryan, Midland), keyboardist Dave Cohen (Florida Georgia Line, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire), bassist Lex Price (Taylor Swift, Shemekia Copeland, Miranda Lambert), drummer Derrek Phillips (Mumford & Sons, Little Big Town, Gloria Gaynor), and backing vocalist Wes Hightower (Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Brad Paisley), with fiddle master Aubrey Haynie (Randy Travis, George Strait, Willie Nelson) also on board for two of the EP’s five tracks.
Recorded at Nashville’s famed Blackbird Studio D over one long but incredibly productive day in May 2025, Dragonfly fully confirms Ewing as an indisputable master of his craft, its five unforgettable songs each revealing facets of his musical storytelling – spanning uplifting paeans to true love (“I Want It All”) and spicy honky tonk (“Stop Talking”) to heartbreaking balladry (“Stronger Where You’re Broken”) and ardently romantic anthems destined to be sung at weddings for years to come (“Say Yes”) – along with his sustained belief that what he does as an artist has real purpose in a content-driven world.
“I don’t want to write or offer energy into the world that I think is going to be deleterious to relationships,” he says. “For me, songs have to resonate with what being human is all about, those spaces where we are most beautifully similar. I want to write songs that can reach as many people as possible, without compromising the integrity of what I believe, the integrity of my artistic voice, if you will.”
Alighting upon timeless themes of love, heartache, spirit, and the struggles (and triumphs) of daily life, Dragonfly makes it plain that Skip Ewing’s particular approach to country music remains as resonant and richly formidable as ever, uniquely able to touch generations old and new with authenticity, positive energy, and an avowed commitment to creating universal connection.
“I want to offer my heart,” Skip Ewing says. “And I believe when we do that, when we just get out of the way and offer who we really are, what we really are, I think people feel it. You know what? It’s the same way with horses. They don’t care who I’ve written for. They don’t care what my name is. They don't have any idea. But if I offer them energy that says, I care about you, I’m here and I’m present, then that connection is there. Once again, here’s my heart. If it’s not authentic, they’re going to know. If it’s not genuine, they’re going to know. I believe audiences are like that. If you gift your time to listen to something that I sing or write, I want you to find that I consistently deliver my heart.”
“I resonate with country, not concrete.
— Skip Ewing