“Losing You” — sometimes given the fuller title “Losing You (Might Be the Best Thing Yet)” — is a bluegrass song credited to Jimmy Martin and Edria Humphrey. Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys first recorded it in 1968.
The lyric works a sly twist on the heartbreak song: a jilted lover, instead of pleading, decides that losing this particular sweetheart may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. That blend of hurt and defiant good riddance suited Jimmy Martin, whose hard-driving, confident style gave the song real swagger.
The song gained wider fame when Martin performed it on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s landmark 1972 album “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” a record that introduced his hard bluegrass to a young rock-era audience. “Losing You” remains one of the songs most closely tied to the “King of Bluegrass.”
