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Charlie Ewing is a cattle rancher
who lives in the Porcupine Hills
west of Claresholm Alberta.
Some of Charlie’s earliest memories
are of his Dad playing guitar and singing
old cowboy songs. By the time he was
nine years old,
Charlie was learning ukulele, then guitar and
starting to sing. His favorite records in his
parents' collection included Peter, Paul and Mary,
Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez,
Bob Dylan
and Marty Robbins. The songs on those records
included a treasure of old traditional folk tunes,
contemporary folk, cowboy songs and the top forty of the day.
After high school Charlie discovered Hank Williams and the likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens as well as bluegrass and old time mountain music. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Circle Be Unbroken album in the late seventies was a huge influence because of the introduction to Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Vassar Clements and Jimmy Martin. The next ten years found Charlie consumed with learning to flat-pick the guitar and play five string banjo Scruggs style.
In the eighties, Charlie and a ranch employee, Don Snider, began playing music together at fiddle contests and Bluegrass Festivals and eventually formed a band called the Dirty Hat Band. Over the years the band members changed but they continued playing festivals and gigs until the fall of 2007. Charlie began writing songs in the eighties and in 2005 released an album called Cowboy Ways that included eight of his own songs with three covers. The musicians on the album include his son Cal and daughter Lonni, Dirty Hat Band members and a couple of imported fiddlers, a drummer and a harmonica player.
Charlie continues to write songs and play solo gigs and plans another CD some time in 2009.
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