“Lost” is an original song by Buzz Busby, the mandolinist and high-tenor singer often called the father of bluegrass in the Washington, D.C., area. Busby recorded it in the mid-1950s, and it was issued on a small label later in the decade.
The recording was a notable one: the band behind Busby included the young Charlie Waller, who would soon co-found the Country Gentlemen, along with banjoist Don Stover and fiddler Scott Stoneman. The lyric is a piece of pure bluegrass melodrama — a singer undone by heartbreak, declaring himself utterly lost — delivered in Busby’s keening, intense vocal style.
Busby was a troubled but influential figure, and “Lost” is among the original songs that secured his place in bluegrass history. It has been reissued on collections of his work and remains a touchstone of the early Washington-area bluegrass scene.
