“I’ve Never Been So Lonesome” is a bluegrass heartbreak song written by Fred Hannah, Ted Lundy, and Sam Humphrey. It was introduced on record in 1962 by Ted Lundy, Fred Hannah and the Southern Mountain Boys.
Ted Lundy was a banjo player from Galax, Virginia, who had taken up the Scruggs three-finger style, and the Southern Mountain Boys were among the bands that carried hard, traditional bluegrass through the 1960s. “I’ve Never Been So Lonesome” is a characteristic piece of that world — a stark, plainspoken declaration of loneliness deeper than any the singer has known before.
The song stayed in the traditional bluegrass repertoire and was revived by Longview, the bluegrass supergroup whose recordings revisited exactly this kind of hard-edged classic material. Their version, heard here, appeared on the band’s 1997 debut album.
