Herb Pedersen
Lonsome Feeling
Lonsome Feeling (1984) Bluegrass Discography
“Lonesome Feelin’” was recorded by the Osborne Brothers and released in 1967 on Decca, the version associated with this entry. 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.
