“Lonesome Feelin’” was recorded by the Osborne Brothers and released in 1967 on Decca. The recording belongs to the Osbornes’ productive late-1960s period when they were carrying their distinctive trio harmony — Bobby Osborne’s piercing high tenor, Sonny Osborne’s three-finger banjo work, and the contributions of their rotating guest singers — into commercial country radio.
The song was written by Billy Henson and entered the Osborne Brothers’ catalogue through their Decca period, when the group was building a body of original honky-tonk-influenced bluegrass material. The lyric is a heartbreak narrative in the harder country-bluegrass mould: the singer returning home to find his partner has gone, the lonesome feeling settling into him as a permanent state. The harmonic shape is straightforwardly traditional in G or A, with the trio harmony slot opening on the chorus refrain.
The song travelled into the broader bluegrass repertoire through the 1970s and 1980s and has been revisited by a long line of contemporary traditional acts. Its place in the Osborne Brothers’ deep recorded catalogue makes it a useful reference point for younger pickers studying the brothers’ approach to vocal arrangement: the lead unmoored slightly above the trio, with Bobby’s tenor doing the work of pulling the chorus into its emotional centre.
