In celebration of the release of their latest album, The Winning Hand — and of more than 40 years as a bluegrass powerhouse — Lonesome River Band is inviting fans to join them on their social media channels with their own performance videos of LRB songs.

It’s hard to think of a genre more committed to sustained creative careers than bluegrass. Case in point: the 41-years-and-counting path of Mountain Home Music Company stalwarts, Lonesome River Band.

It’s hard to think of a genre more committed to sustained creative careers than bluegrass. Case in point: the 41-years-and-counting path of Mountain Home Music Company stalwarts, Lonesome River Band. Though the last remaining original member departed before the turn of the century, the group — a quintet for more than 20 years now — hasn’t so much reinvented itself as refined a profoundly influential signature sound that has a seemingly endless appeal to successive generations of fans and musicians alike.

After three well-received singles drawn from the bluegrass-adjacent country music catalog, acclaimed bluegrass quintet, Lonesome River Band, returns with a new Mountain Home Music Company single that, even as it throws a couple of gentle curveballs, stands squarely on pure bluegrass turf.

“Heyday,” the title track from Lonesome River Band’s latest album, is No. 1 on this month’s Bluegrass Today radio chart.

A wistful reminiscence cast in the voice of a small town that’s “still sleepy but…still alive,” the song features new member Adam Miller (mandolin) on lead and subtle, sympathetic solos from fiddler Mike Hartgrove and guitarist Jesse Smathers.

Lonesome River Band has released a music video for "Heyday," the title track from their latest album, after a premiere by Bluegrass Today.

“Heyday,” the band's current radio single, is a wistful reminiscence cast in the voice of a small town that’s “still sleepy but…still alive.” It features new member Adam Miller (mandolin) on lead and subtle, sympathetic solos from fiddler Mike Hartgrove and guitarist Jesse Smathers.

Few bluegrass groups have been around for forty years, and even fewer have been more popular, more widely admired or more influential for as long as Mountain Home Music Company recording artists, Lonesome River Band. By the early 1990s, they were winning key awards and topping the charts, and while members have come and gone, the quintet’s reputation for crafting essential, archetypal bluegrass has only grown with each passing year.  

Few bluegrass groups have been around for forty years, and even fewer have been more popular, more widely admired or more influential for as long as Mountain Home Music Company recording artists, Lonesome River Band. By the early 1990s, they were winning key awards and topping the charts, and while members have come and gone, the quintet’s reputation for crafting essential, archetypal bluegrass has only grown with each passing year.  

“One of the biggest joys in my life is playing music with friends,” says Jesse Smathers. “I have always had a goal to capture that joy and excitement that comes from a circle with five or six musicians.” Music has always been an important part of Smathers’ life - his grandfather, Harold Smathers, and granduncle Luke Smathers, received a North Carolina Heritage Award in 1993 for their contributions to North Carolina folk music. 

Lonesome River Band introduced two new members with their latest single, "Mary Ann Is A Pistol," which underlines both the durability and the freshness of the group’s unique approach and fabled history. Now, that song has claimed the No. 1 spot on Bluegrass Today's Monthly airplay chart, which serves as further proof that Lonesome River Band is still at the top of its game.