The son of folk singers, song collectors and political activists Guy and Candie Carawan, Evan Carawan was raised in the Highlander Research and Education Center, a nonprofit labor education center in Tennessee. Influenced by his parents’ participation with traditional folk music, Carawan started playing hammered dulcimer at an extremely early age. By his tenth birthday, he previously become an extraordinary participant. At Highlander’s 40th wedding anniversary special event, in 1972, he trained Malcolm Dalgliesh his 1st tune for the device, “Drunken Sailor.” A regular performer at Renaissance fairs, Carawan documented a duo recording, Appalachian & Irish Tunes on Hammer Dulcimer, along with his dad in 1988 and, became a member of by his mom, a Carawan family members album, House Brew, in 1991.