Dawson Cowals was born in Washington D.C. in 1974. He moved shortly thereafter to Anchorage, Alaska for a few years before relocating to Southern Oregon with his mom when his parents divorced. After several years his mom remarried and the family soon moved to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, where they became involved with the non-denominational missionary organization, YWAM. Dawson spent several years growing up on the Big Island, and experienced at a young age the music of Bob Fitts, who was a definite influence on the worship music he would write years later.

Then in 1985 they moved back to Grants Pass, Oregon, which sparked the beginning of Dawson's musical pursuits. In 1986 he picked up the flute and began taking private lessons as well as participating in the school band. "My parents wondered at first why I wanted to play the flute, and weren't sure if I was really going to stick with it," says Dawson, acknowledging that the choice was not one of the more typical instruments played by boys in the band. "In fact, I was the only boy in the entire flute section until high school and college," he admits. "I got a lot of ribbing in school because of it, but I just ignored it. I really enjoyed the sound and the expression of the flute, and after all the world's greatest flautists were all men like James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and the ubiquitous Jethro Tull."

It wasn't until late in his Junior year in high school that he finally picked up the guitar for the first time. "It was kind of by accident actually," laughs Dawson as he explains, "I had an open period that I had to fill with a class and the only choices available were Ceramics or Beginning Guitar. Since I already played flute in the band and the instructor was the band director, I figured I would sign up." Dawson's father had played guitar and bass in a band in college, and he had always encouraged Dawson to pursue it. "Even though my dad played guitar I just had never had any interest in picking it up. But once I did—everything just clicked."

"As soon as I got the first few chords down I started writing songs. The first was Eye Of The Storm in 1990, and the rest is history." Since then Dawson has written nearly 200 other songs, 80 of which can be found on some of his more recent recordings. "Some of the older songs can only be found on a few homemade tape recordings or early CD burnings. But if you are really interested I can probably dig some of them up," Dawson says about his early writings. "I hope, though, that my writing depth, both lyrically and musically, has increased dramatically since those early days. I would probably be embarrassed to have people hear some of my early ramblings. Although my mom still claims some of them as her favorites."

Dawson cites quite an eclectic range of music as having influenced his sound, and it is readily apparent in his songs which range from Americana ballads and folk-rock melodies to jazz inspired progressions and acoustic storytelling. "Growing up my parents subjected me to the likes of John Denver and Crosby, Stills & Nash. From those beginnings I have branched out to the classical stylings of Jean-Pierre Rampal, the pop-rock sounds of groups like Third Day and Whiteheart, and the acoustic storytelling of Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Steven Curtis Chapman. Other favorites include: Everything But the Girl, Caedmon's Call, Jennifer Knapp, Bryan Duncan, Vertical Horizon, George Winston, Acoustic Alchemy, Dave Brubeck, Switchfoot, and probably more than I could possibly mention in a single paragraph."