"High Lonesome Sound" is a song written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist b ...

. It was released in April 1996 as the first single and title track from his album ''

High Lonesome Sound ''High Lonesome Sound'' is the seventh studio album from American country music artist Vince Gill. It was released in 1996 on MCA Nashville. It features the singles "High Lonesome Sound," "Worlds Apart," "Pretty Little Adrianna, "A Little More Lo ...

''. The song reached #12 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart in June 1996 and #1 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart in Canada the following month. At the

39th Grammy Awards The 39th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1997, at Madison Square Garden, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Babyface was the night's biggest winner, with 3 awards. Celine Dion, Toni B ...

, "High Lonesome Sound" won the award for

Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation ...

and was nominated for

Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song (sometimes known as the Country Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the songwriter(s) of the song, not to the artist, except if the artist is also the songwriter. There ha ...

. An alternate version of the song was recorded in a more bluegrass orchestration and backed by

Alison Krauss & Union Station Alison Krauss & Union Station is an American bluegrass and country band associated with singer Alison Krauss. It was initially composed of Krauss, Jeff White, Mike Harman and John Pennell. Later additions included Tim Stafford, Ron Block, Ada ...

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of ''

'' magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that the "vibrant and bluegrassy sound of the instruments combined with Gill's stellar vocals create a winning combination."''

'', April 13, 1996

Chart performance

"High Lonesome Sound" debuted at number 50 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of April 13, 1996

Year-end charts

References

1996 singles 1996 songs Vince Gill songs Songs written by Vince Gill Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer) MCA Records singles {{1996-country-song-stub