For his first release after signing with Mountain Home Music Company, multi-instrumentalist Jesse Smathers digs deeper into the vein of his earlier singles with a neatly multi-flavored version of “Sleepy Eyed John,” an old favorite written by a Kentucky fiddler turned Hollywood western swing musician and found in the repertoire of old-time, country, swing and bluegrass musicians alike.

Mountain music has been in Jesse Smathers’ family for generations. His grandfather, Harold Smathers, and grand uncle Luke Smathers, recorded for June Appal and were awarded the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1993 for their contributions to North Carolina folk music. And that’s just one piece of the family tree: the Smathers musical tradition can be traced back to when the family first settled in the North Carolina mountains in the 1700s.

“Nothing in the World to Do,” Jesse Smathers’ debut single as a solo artist, recently made its first appearance on the Bluegrass Today weekly charts. Hot on its heels, Smathers announces the release of a second single, “Yesterday’s Blues.”

A native of Eden, North Carolina, Smathers now resides in Floyd, Virginia. He’s a full-time member of seminal Southwest Virginia group Lonesome River Band, and a music instructor at the Handmade Music School - where he met fellow instructor and songwriter Andrew Small.