Lonesome River Band: Timing, Timing and More Timing

Back in 1989, I was traveling around and somehow ended up at a party down in southern Virginia. It was at Doobie Shea Studios with Tim Austin, Sammy Shelor and company. I can’t remember if the rest of the band was there.

Doobie Shea was their personal studio where they recorded some outrageously great albums.

I remember Sammy Shelor taking me into the control room and playing me some individual tracks from some of the songs. He said- “these we’re all recorded with a click track.”

Now a click track wasn’t anything new back then, but for bluegrass music it wasn’t the norm at all. And seriously, it’s one thing to record with a click and another to be able to ‘nail it.”

Well, Sammy and company nailed it in a big way, and I believe their super tight sound has influenced a lot of the new groups we are hearing today in modern bluegrass.