“I Know What It Means to Be Lonesome” began life far from the mountains. It was a Tin Pan Alley popular song of around 1919, written by professional songwriters and recorded by the pop singers of the day, before it drifted into the rural Southern tradition.
The song reached the country canon through the Carter Family, who recorded it in 1931 under the title “Lonesome for You.” It is among the songs the Carters are believed to have learned by way of Lesley Riddle, the Black guitarist and singer from Tennessee who traveled with A.P. Carter on his song-collecting trips and taught the family a great deal of their material.
From the Carter Family the song passed into bluegrass, recorded over the years by artists including Flatt and Scruggs.
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