“Another Night” was written by Hobo Jack Adkins, an eastern Kentucky singer and songwriter known for a raw, hard-edged delivery and for performing only his own compositions. The song first appeared on record in the late 1950s, on a single Adkins released for a small regional label.
It found its lasting audience through bluegrass. The Stanley Brothers recorded “Another Night,” pairing it with another Adkins song, “Highway of Regret,” and those recordings carried his writing well beyond its local origins. The lyric is a plain, aching account of a sleepless night spent missing a lost love, the kind of direct emotional writing that bluegrass harmony suits especially well.
Alison Krauss and Union Station revived the song for their 1992 album Every Time You Say Goodbye, introducing it to a new generation of listeners. Adkins’s songs have also been recorded by Ricky Skaggs and others, a modest but real legacy for a writer who never sought a wide career.
