Lonesome Brothers

The Lonesome Brothers originated in 1986 through Jim Armenti and Ray Mason, who assembled the project amid downtime from their separate musical work. They spent years shaping their alternative country material without committing it to tape, even as their reputation grew around memorable traditional compositions. The ensemble limited itself to live shows alone until the 1990s, when the members finally chose to enter the studio. Their self-titled debut appeared in the closing years of that decade, after which they released albums at a measured, recurring interval, relying on a pool of established alternative country players to fill out the instrumental roles.